This view is just part of a new, high-resolution image of the sun's full surface captured bythe Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) on the Solar Orbiter spacecraft. Screenshot. ESA & NASA / Solar Orbiter / PHI & EUI teams; Data processing: J. Hirzberger (MPS) & E. Kraaikamp (ROB)The European Space Agency (ESA) has just released four new, stellar images of the sun, including the highest resolution views to date of its full, visible surface, called the photosphere.Each image is actually a mosaic of 25 high-resolution shots snapped by the Solar Orbiter mission on March 22, 2023. The spacecraft captured all 100 total images when it was less than 46 million miles from the sun. The process took more than four hours, since the spacecraft had to change position for each individual photograph. In the final mosaics, the suns diameter is almost 8,000 pixels across.The closer we look, the more we see, Mark Miesch, an astrophysicist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Space Weather Prediction Center who wasnt involved with obtaining the images, tells CNNs Ashley Strickland. To understand the elaborate interplay between large and small; between twisted magnetic fields and churning flows, we need to behold the sun in all its splendor. These high-resolution images from Solar Orbiter bring us closer to that aspiration than ever before.The Solar Orbiter is a joint mission between the ESA and NASA, operated by the ESA, that launched in February 2020 and released its first images the following July. Since its launch, the program has hit many milestones, capturing both the closest-ever images of the sun and the first close-up images of its polar regions.While the spacecraft totes six imaging instruments, the newly released images were captured with just two: the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) and the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI). The PHI is responsible for three of the new solar viewsan image in visible light, a map of the direction of the magnetic field and a velocity map featuring the speed and direction of parts of the suns surface. The EUI, meanwhile, produced an image of our stars outer atmosphere, called the corona, in ultraviolet light.These new high-resolution maps from Solar Orbiters PHI instrument show the beauty of the suns surface magnetic field and flows in great detail. At the same time, they are crucial for inferring the magnetic field in the suns hot corona, which our EUI instrument is imaging, Daniel Mller, a Solar Orbiter project scientist with the ESA, says in a statement. The suns magnetic field is key to understanding the dynamic nature of our home star from the smallest to the largest scales.The four images offer a high-definition tour of the sun. First, the visible light image below depicts the stars constantly moving surface of hot plasmaor charged gas, simply put. This layer has a temperature between 8,132 and 10,832 degrees Fahrenheit and emits most of the suns radiation. The sun in visible light ESA & NASA / Solar Orbiter / PHI Team CC BY-SA 3.0 IGOBeneath the surface is the suns convection zone, in which dense plasma swirls around, rather like the magma in Earths mantle. This phenomenon makes the suns surface look grainy, and scientists say the stars magnetic field is driven by the churning plasma.Dark shapes called sunspots are seen in both PHIs visible light image and its magnetic map, shown below. The suns magnetic field is stronger at the sunspots, with red in the image indicating where it moves outward and blue indicating where it moves inward.Sunspots are concentrated tangles of magnetic fields, where plasma is diverted from the suns heat-mixing convective flow, making it cooler than surrounding areas. As a result, the plasma in sunspots gives off less light and appears dark in the visible light image. This map, showing the line-of-sight direction of the sun's magnetic field, is also called a magnetogram. ESA & NASA / Solar Orbiter / PHI Team CC BY-SA 3.0 IGOIn the third imagethe velocity map, shown belowthe PHI captures the movement of parts of the suns surface, with blue indicating movement toward the Solar Orbiter and red indicating movement away from it.This map shows that while the plasma on the surface of the sun generally rotates with the suns overall spin around its axis, it is pushed outward around the sunspots, according to the statement. The velocity map, also called a tachogram ESA & NASA / Solar Orbiter / PHI Team CC BY-SA 3.0 IGOLastly, the EUIs ultraviolet light image captures the suns coronaits wispy outer atmosphere that can only be seen from Earth during a total solar eclipse. The image depicts interesting activity once again around the sunspots: plasma shooting outward along magnetic field lines, which occasionally connect sunspots close to each other. This high-resolution image shows the sun in ultraviolet light, revealing its outer atmosphere, thecorona. ESA & NASA / Solar Orbiter / EUI Team CC BY-SA 3.0 IGOThe image processing that produced the PHIs images was new and difficult, per the statement, but moving forward, ESA experts expect to produce similar images with greater speed, potentially releasing two a year.This mission is such a treasure and important to science, Gnther Hasinger, director of science for the ESA, told Space.coms Amy Thompson at the time of its launch.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: NASA, Outer Space, Photography, Solar System, Sun

That Viral Banana Duct-Taped to a Wall? It Just Sold for $6.2 MillionMaurizio Cattelans perishable piece soared above the pre-auction estimate of $1.5 million and was the subject of an intense bidding battle at a Sothebys auction on Wednesday Maurizio Cattelan'sComedian sold for $6.2 million at auction. Cindy Ord / Getty ImagesArtist Maurizio Cattelans viral duct-taped banana has sold for a total of $6.2 million. The piece, called Comedian, soared past its pre-auction estimate of $1.5 million at a Sotheby's auction on Wednesday.The banana transcends geographies, language, understanding, cultural differences, David Galperin, head of contemporary art for Sothebys, told the Washington Posts Ashley Fetters Maloy after the auction. And the high price tag it commanded spoke to its universality, the way it kind of pierces through the cultural zeitgeist to the very center, he added.Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun beat out six other collectors after a five-minute bidding war for the piece. He gets the banana, plus a certificate of authenticity and installation instructions in case he decides to replace the fruit once it rots.For Sun, Comedian symbolizes a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes and the cryptocurrency community, he says in a statement. Now that the piece is officially his, he says he plans to personally eat the banana as part of this unique artistic experience, honoring its place in both art history and popular culture.The artworka yellow banana duct-taped to a white wall exactly 160 centimeters (63 inches) above the groundhas been a controversial conversation-starter ever since it debuted at Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2019.At the art fair, the piece attracted huge crowds and, at one point, was even snatched off the wall and eaten by performance artist David Datuna. (In 2023, a university student ate the banana again while it was on display at Seouls Leeum Museum of Art.) It went viral online and landed on the cover of the New York Post. Three versions of the banana sold for $120,000 to $150,000 each; one was later donated anonymously to the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.Cattelan has been described as a provocateur, a prankster and a poseur joker. His past works have included a fully functioning, 18-karat gold toilet called America, and a sculpture of the Pope being crushed by a meteorite called La Nona Ora.In Cattelan's view, Comedian is not a joke but rather a sincere commentary and a reflection on what we value, as he told the Art Newspapers Gareth Harris in 2021. He hoped the piece would break up the normal viewing habits and open a discussion on what really matters, he told the publication.The World's Most Expensive Banana: Maurizio Cattelan's 'Comedian' Sells for $6.2 Million | Sotheby'sWatch on The banana that sold at auction this week was purchased earlier that same day for 35 cents from a fruit stand on Manhattans Upper East Side, reports the New York Times Zachary Small.But Sun wasnt just buying a piece of potassium-rich fruit. He was paying for the story of Comedian, the publicity and his own version of how he wants to be seen as a collector, which are seemingly priceless, says Melanie Gerlis, an art market columnist and author, to the Guardians Tim Jonze.To many people, the concept of paying anything more than the value of paint on canvas is baffling, she tells the Guardian. And yet there are plenty of people in the art world elite who spend thousands and even millions on paintings. Cattelan is pushing this idea to its logical conclusion.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Sarah Kuta| READ MORESarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.Filed Under: Art, Artists, Arts, Auctions, Contemporary Art, Visual Arts

Iznik tile, 16th to 17th century, Syria or Turkey. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of ArtWhen Hamid Hemat accepted a curatorial post at Connecticuts Wadsworth Atheneum in 2022, the refugee from Kabul, Afghanistan, was surprised by what he found. The Wadsworth is the oldest public art museum in the United States, home to a trove of European and American paintings. But it also holds one of the worlds best collections of Islamic art. Im traveling 7,000 miles from my home country, and I came here and found this amazing collection, says Hemat, who has spent the past two years studying the Wadsworths delicate miniatures, medieval Qurans and ornate glassware from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia for a show, Divine Geometry, that runs through April 13, 2025. Although donated by American art patrons in the early 20th century, some of these works have never been exhibited before, let alone together. Theres many things going on in Islamic art, and each place has their own culture, their own language, their own style, says Hemat, who hopes the show will spark a dialogue between different human civilizations. This miniature depicting figures from Persian mythology was painted on ivory, likely with a brush made from a single cats hair, in 18th or 19th-century Iran. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of ArtUnderglaze-painted tile, late 19th century, Iran. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of ArtNastaliq Calligraphy of Shah Mahmud Nishapuri, 16th century, Nishapur, Iran. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of ArtSubscribe to Smithsonian magazine now for just $19.99This article is a selection from the December 2024 issue of Smithsonian magazineGet the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox.Filed Under: Africa, Art History, Exhibitions, Islam, Middle East , New England, South Asia

The book recently underwent a three-month conservation process. Clare PrinceA newly restored 17th-century map of the stars and planets is going on display for the first time in England. As one of only 20 surviving copies of the Dutch mapmaker Andreas Cellarius Harmonia Macrocosmica, the atlas is a revealing relic of the Netherlands golden age of cartography.Known as the Star Atlas, this copy of Harmonia Macrocosmica is owned by the United Kingdoms National Trust. The book recently underwent an extensive conservation, and its now set to be displayed at Blickling Estate in Norfolk, England.Harmonia Macrocosmica, printed in Amsterdam in 1661, contains 29 charts which illustrate the astronomical theories of historical thinkers like Claudius Ptolemy of ancient Egypt, Nicolaus Copernicus of Renaissance Poland and Tycho Brahe of Renaissance Denmark. Running over 400 pages long, Harmonia includes text alongside Baroque depictions of the sun, moon, planets, and classical and biblical constellations. Librarian Rebecca Feakes studies theHarmonia MacrocosmicaNational Trust Images / Paul BaileyThis large folio was meant to be displayed and celebrated for its size and opulence, says Blickling librarian Rebecca Feakes in a statement. Owning it told the world about your status and intelligence.During the 1600s, the Netherlands was home to Europes most prominent mapmakers. The city of Antwerp had become a prominent hub of map printing in the late 1500s, and by the 1630s, Amsterdam was the world capital of cartographic publishing. Cellarius, a German-born schoolteacher, had written only history and architecture books before creating the Star Atlas at the suggestion of his publisher Johannes Janssonius.Harmonia Macrocosmica's third plate National Trust Images / Paul BaileyCellarius Harmonia exhibits Dutch mapmakers typical, highly decorative style, as well as contemporary shifts in space science. At the time the Star Atlas was published, societies had begun to accept the once-heretical theory of Copernicus: that Earth and the other planets revolve around the sunthat Earth is not the center of the galaxy.It was aimed at wealthy, learned collectors who valued it as a reference work, beautifully produced, says Feakes in the statement. The gold-tooled bindings and hand-coloured plates are spectacular. The title page of Andreas Cellarius' star atlas National Trust Images / Paul BaileyBlickling Estate has hosted this golden-bound copy of Harmonia Macrocosmica since 1742. Because of its fragility, the book hasnt been publicly displayed since the 1940swhen the National Trust acquired the mansion and its contents, including a vast library. The estates atlas collection is currently the subject of a research project about lights effects on book preservation, which prompted the recent conservation of Harmonia.Harmonia Macrocosmica's 27th plate National Trust Images / Paul BaileyThe parchment on the spine of the atlas was extremely dry and fractured, with large areas of loss, leaving it almost impossible to handle, says book conservation expert Clare Prince in the statement. Many of the pages within were torn and crumpled and in need of repair. Beautiful, hand-coloured, engraved plates had become loose and were at risk of further damage. Before conservation, the book's binding was split and fragile. Clare PrincePrince spent three months repairing the Star Atlas: dismantling the spine and lining it with padding paper, resewing its endbands, repairing its pages and reattaching its engraved plates. Per the statement, the book will be displayed open, alongside prints of some of its remarkably unfaded, often whimsical artwork depicting the Milky Ways sun, stars and planets.As Feakes says, Some of the ideas in the book seem strange to us now, but the stunning illustrations leave no doubt that Cellarius and his contemporaries were just as awestruck by the night sky as we are today.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Astronomers, Astronomy, Books, Conservation, Cultural Preservation, Maps, Netherlands, Planets, Sun

Fat tissue, as seen here under a scanning electron micrograph, maintains a "memory" of obesity, new research suggests. Steve Gschmeissner / Science Photo Library via Getty ImagesFat cells have a memory of obesity, which may help explain why its so difficult to maintain weight loss, according to a new study published Monday in the journal Nature.Individuals who have lost weight often later gain the weight back, in a phenomenon known as the yo-yo effect. Now, the new research suggests changes at the cellular level may be partially responsible for the bodys tendency to revert to obesity after weight loss.Obesity leads toepigenetic changes, or chemical alterations to DNA that affect gene activity. The new paper suggests that in fat cells, these changes linger even after a person loses weight. And the cells, beyond simply remembering their prior state of obesity, likely aim to return to this state, says study co-author Ferdinand von Meyenn, an epigeneticist at ETH Zrich, to the Guardians Ian Sample.Scientists studied body fat, also known as adipose tissue, from two groups of participants: One group had never been obese, while the other group had experienced severe obesity. When the researchers compared fat cells between the two groups, they found differences in gene activity.Certain genes in the fat cells of participants with obesity were more active, and others were less active, compared to the control group, reports Nature News Traci Watson. The genes that were more active play a role in the formation of thick, scar-like tissue (called fibrosis), as well as inflammation. The genes that were less active are responsible for helping the fat cells function normally.These gene activity patterns remained constant, even after the individuals with severe obesity had undergone weight-loss surgeries. Though the participants had lost weight, the genes in their fat cells still behaved as if they were obese.The new results show whats happening at the molecular level, and thats really cool, Hyun Cheol Roh, an epigenome specialist at Indiana University School of Medicine who was not involved with the research, tells Nature News.Next, researchers found similar epigenetic changes to fat cells in mice. In another experiment, they put obese mice on a diet. Once the mice had lost weight, researchers fed them a high-fat diet for one month; they also fed the same high-fat diet to mice that had never been obese.The mice that had never been obese gained an average of 5 grams, while the previously obese mice gained an average of 14 grams, writes New Scientists Carissa Wong. When grown in a lab dish, the fat cells from the previously obese mice also absorbed more sugar and fat.From an evolutionary perspective, this makes sense, says study co-author Laura C. Hinte, an epigeneticist at ETH Zrich, to the Guardian. Humans and other animals have adapted to defend their body weight rather than lose it, as food scarcity was historically a common challenge.For now, researchers havent proved that the epigenetic changes to fat cells cause weight gaintheyve only shown a correlation. In addition, epigenetic changes likely arent solely responsible for weight gain. Other factors are probably at play as well, such as the difficulty of maintaining a low-calorie diet for a long period of time.Scientists are also not sure whether the obesity-linked epigenetic changes are permanent. And, if these DNA changes are reversible, researchers dont know how long they last. But the findings suggest preventing obesity in the first place is likely easier than trying to lose weight and keep it off.The knowledge that fat cells remember obesity could help doctors and public health experts design more effective weight-loss programs. Pharmaceutical companies could also one day develop new drugs that reverse the obesity-linked epigenetic changes, reports El Pas Jessica Mouzo.More broadly, the findings could help reduce some of the stigma surrounding obesity.This is not just a lack of willingness or a lack of willpower, theres really a molecular mechanism which fights against this weight loss, von Meyenn says to Bloombergs Naomi Kresge.Moving forward, the team wants to study other types of tissue, such as in the pancreas, liver and brain, to see whether their cells also have a memory of obesity. They also want to explore whether exercise or weight-loss drugs like semaglutide can affect the epigenetic changes linked with obesity.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Disease, Disease and Illnesses, DNA, Genetics, Health, Medicine, New Research, Obesity

Scientists Finally Identified This Glowing, Transparent Mystery Mollusk After Nearly 25 Years of PuzzlingThe newly described species of sea slug dwells in darkness in the oceans midnight zone, using a hood to capture prey with a Venus flytrap-like technique The creature lives in the midnight zone," an area of the ocean so deep that sunlight never reaches it. Monterey Bay Aquarium Research InstituteIn February 2000, scientists spotted an unusual, glowing creature swimming 8,576 feet beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean. They were using a remotely operated underwater vehicle to explore the midnight zone off the coast of central California, an area so deep that sunlight never reaches it. The bioluminescent animal didnt match up with anything theyd seen before, so they nicknamed it the mystery mollusk.It sort of looks like it was made up from spare parts left over from making a bunch of other animals, says Bruce H. Robison, an ecologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, to NPRs Short Wave.Now, more than two decades later, researchers say theyve identified the elusive creature. Its a new species of sea slug that theyve named Bathydevius caudactylus, they report this week in the journal Deep-Sea Research Part I.After that first encounter in 2000, researchers went looking for more B. caudactylus specimens to get a better idea of what they had found. They returned to the same spot they saw the first one, called Monterey Submarine Canyon, but also explored new areas off the coast of California. The team ventured up to Oregon, and they even spotted a few of the mystery mollusks in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific. In the end, they observed 157 individuals.Most of the creatures they found were between about 3,300 and 10,700 feet deep, where water temperatures were around 36 degrees Fahrenheit. But a handful lived even deeper, in habitats up to 13,150 feet below the surface. Many B. caudactylus were alone, but a few were found swimming near each other.To better understand the animals identity, the team collected a few B. caudactylus specimens and sequenced their DNA. This analysis showed the creature was a new species that belonged to a previously unknown family of nudibranch, or sea slug. And that, researchers say, was astounding.The deep water column is maybe the last place youd expect to find a nudibranch, Robison tells CNNs Ashley Strickland. Its sort of like finding hummingbirds near the peak of Mt. Everest. Still, he adds, almost every aspect of Bathydevius reflects an adaptation to this habitat: anatomy, physiology, reproduction, feeding, behavior; its unique.MBARI researchers discover remarkable new swimming sea slug in the deep seaWatch on B. caudactylus is an ethereal-looking creature with a gelatinous, transparent body. It has a large, bell-shaped hood atop its head; a fringed tail with between 9 and 16 finger-like appendages; and a short, cylindrical foot protruding from its middle. Its red stomach and orangish-brown digestive gland are visible within its see-through body.The creatures use their hoods to trap preyprimarily shrimpwith a technique akin to how a Venus flytrap captures bugs. To move through the water, they either drift on the current or flex their bodies up and down.Most of the time, B. caudactylus simply relies on its transparent body to avoid being seen by predators. But, if necessary, it can startle predators by lighting up with bioluminescence. In some instances, it can even shed one of its finger-like tail appendages as a distraction.Those dactyls fall off like a lizard dropping its tail, Robison tells the East Bay Times Rita Aksenfeld. If they turn off the lights in the rest of the body, and just that glowing, wiggling dactyl is visible, then the predator may go for the decoy rather than the animal itself.When it needs to make a speedy escape, B. caudactylus can shut its hood quickly to propel itself out of harms way.In another adaptation to its deep-sea environment, B. caudactylus has both male and female sex organs, though researchers never observed the species mating. When its time to release eggs, the mollusk floats down to the seafloor, where it anchors itself with its foot.In the habitat where they live, opportunities to find a potential mate are few and far between, Robison tells the East Bay Times. But you double your chances of success if both individuals carry both sets of sex organs.The roughly 3,000 known species of nudibranchs come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors. Since the animals lack shells to protect themselves, they use their coloring to either warn predators to stay away or to camouflage against their surroundings. Some have evolved the ability to steal stinging cells from their prey and reuse them.Nudibranchs primarily eat jellyfish, anemones, sponges and other aquatic invertebratesbut some are cannibalistic. Two other nudibranchs use hoods to trap their prey, but they are only distantly related to B. caudactylus. This indicates that the mystery mollusks feeding method probably evolved independently several times.Though nudibranchs live in oceans all over the world, researchers say B. caudactylus is the first known to live in the deep water column.More broadly, the discovery of B. caudactylus demonstrates just how little scientists know about the oceanand the deep ocean, in particular.For there to be a relatively large, unique and glowing animal that is in a previously unknown family really underscores the importance of using new technology to catalog this vast environment, study co-author Steven H.D. Haddock, a marine biologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, says in a statement. The more we learn about deep-sea communities, the better we will be at ocean decision-making and stewardship.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, Biology, Mollusks, Worms, Sponges, Starfish, New Research, Oceans, Pacific Ocean, Water, Weird Animals, wildlife

L'empire des Lumires,Ren Magritte, 1954 Christie's Images LTD. 2024A 1954 painting by Ren Magritte, Lempire des lumires,has just sold for $121.2 million. The painting surpassed its $95 million estimate at Christies New York this week, making it the first Magritte work ever to sell for nine figures.Magritte is known for his Surrealist style, often placing everyday objects or figures in strange scenes and scenarios.Lempire des lumires depicts a house near a pond, enveloped in the dark of night with only a street lamp and interior windows illuminating it. The treetops above the house, untouched by the light, are entirely black. However, the sky above the house is bright blue and filled with fluffy white clouds, as if it were the middle of the day.In 1966, Magritte explained the concept, per Christies:After I had painted Lempire des lumires, I got the idea that night and day exist together, that they are one. This is reasonable, or at the very least its in keeping with our knowledge: in the world night always exists at the same time as day. (Just as sadness always exists in some people at the same time as happiness in others.) But such ideas are not poetic. What is poetic is the visible image of the picture.The artist became somewhat fixated on this idea. He created 27 different versions of Lempire des lumires, and each shows the same scene: a dark house (or houses) with a bright blue sky above.The high price of this sale comes at a time when many have been fretting over a sluggish global art market. Artnets Katya Kazakinareports thattwo telephone bidders went head-to-head via Christies staffers Alex Rotter and Xin Li-Cohen.You could have heard a pin drop, Kazakina reports. Almost ten minutes into the proceeding, Rotter was on top with a $105 million bid, and Li-Cohen signaled that her client was bowing out. The room erupted in applause. The buyers premium brought the total to $121.2 million.Brett Gorvy, a founder of the art galleryLvy Gorvy Dayan, tells the New York Times Scott Reyburn that the large number could be influenced by the current political climate.The election has definitely had an immediate impact on the marketplace, Gorvy says. The stock market has made people richer. We saw in our gallery the day after the election that deals were done by clients who had hesitated before.But, Gorvy notes, it could be a honeymoon period.Two other Magritte works went up for sale at the auction. Those paintings,La cour damour(1960) and La Mmoire(1945), sold for $10.53 million and $3.68 million respectively. The impressive number forLempire des lumires stole the show and further cemented Magrittes legacy as a painter.The motif is one of the few truly iconic images in 20th-century art, Max Carter, Christies vice chairman of 20th- to 21st-century art, tells CNNs Karina Tsui.Carter adds, When icons appear on the market, they create their own market dynamic.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Artists, Auctions, Painters, Painting, Surrealism

Song-sharking companies sometimes began by offering free consultations for everyday poetsas in this 1921 advertisement in Film Fun magazine. Film Fun MagazineAs popular music grew into a mass industry in the early 20th century, a murky assortment of companies popped up and began a practice that came to be known as song-sharking. Advertisements enjoined ordinary Americans to send in their original poems and lyrics, which the company would set to music for a rather large feea few hundred dollars, depending on the year.Early song-sharking companies in the 1910s merely set customers lyrics to sheet music and mailed the sheaves to the customer as a collectors item. In later decades, sharking companies enlisted whole teams of session musicians to give peoples submissions the full-blown studio treatment and put them on records. And while many Americans were no doubt satisfied with the novelty of hearing someone on the gramophone singing their lyrics, many song-sharking advertisements dangled a further enticement: the seductive proposition that fame and success in the music business might be just a cashiers check and a postage stamp away.The advertisements, typically nestled inside popular magazines and supermarket tabloids, tended to address readers with the smarmy cadence of a door-to-door salesman, hinting at the possibility of a big payday. Mail your song-poem on love, peace, victory or any other subject to us today, announces an emblematic example from a 1922 issue of Illustrated World. We revise song-poems, compose music for them and guarantee to secure publication on a royalty basis by a New York music publisher. A 1962 ad. Some poems were quite whimsical:Yellow submarines / Corn on the cob and tangerines / I like yellow things.Radio / TV magazineOf course, most of these song-poems had no life beyond the LPs that companies mailed to paying customers. Of an estimated 200,000 songs that companies produced from the lyrics of would-be folk lyricists between 1900 and the early 2000s, when the practice petered out, not one ever became a hit. Still, the enterprise struck at a deeply rooted American desire to win fame and fortune instantly, based on ones own exquisite originality.As poetry, the lyrics could run the gamut from generic and derivative to just plain weird. But buoyed by the musicianship of studio professionals, and sharpened by the formal conventions of popular songwriting, the effect could be earnest, whimsical, even charming, and plenty of paying customers seem to have been quite happy with the results. In the 1990s, song-poems thus acquired a cult following among Americana collectors and now enjoy a second life thanks to various compilations, perhaps most notably the 2003 CD The American Song-Poem Anthologya testament to their status as an unfiltered, radically democratic form of outsider art.I love pop music, Phil Milstein, who produced that album, remarked in an NPR interview shortly after its release. But Im aware that for great pop songwriters theres always some mediation between life experience and the craft of the finished work. With song-poem music there is no such mediation. Its a much purer expression of human thought.Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine now for just $19.99This article is a selection from the December 2024 issue of Smithsonian magazineGet the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox.Filed Under: Business, Music, Musical History, Musicians, Songs

This marble tablet weighs 115 pounds and measures two feet tall. SothebysTheoldest-known stone tablet featuring an inscription of the Ten Commandments is going to auction, where experts think it could sell for between $1 million and $2 million. The1,500-year-old marble slab was discovered in 1913 during a railway excavation along the southern coast of what is now Israel. Dating to between 300 and 500 C.E., it was unearthed near the locations of early synagogues, mosques and churches.On December 18, Sothebys will sell the tablet, which features 20 lines of Paleo-Hebrew script. It stands about two feet tall and weighs 115 pounds. This is the first time its been on the market since 2016, when it brought in $850,000.We understood how powerful the object was, and we were really thrilled to be able to offer it for sale to the public, Sharon Liberman Mintz, Sothebys international senior specialist of Judaica, books and manuscripts, tells ARTnews Karen K. Ho.This is really one-of-a-kind, she adds. Its one of the most important historic artifacts that Ive ever handled. Sotheby's estimates that the tablet could sell for between $1 million and $2 million. SothebysHowever, for many years after the artifacts discovery, no one understood the extent of the tablets historical significance. Per Sothebys, someone once used it as a paving stone at the entrance of their house. The inscription, which faced upwards, sustained damage as guests walked on it.Some of the letters of the central part of the inscription are blurredbut still readable under proper lightingeither from the conditions of its burial or foot traffic while it was resting in the courtyard, David Michaels, director of ancient coins for Heritage Auctions, toldCNNs Georgia McCafferty in 2016.In 1943, its circumstances finally changed. Y. Kaplan, a municipal archaeologist, bought the slab and realized that it was a rare text known as a Samaritan Decalogue. It was made by theSamaritans, an ancient group whose beliefs are rooted in the Old Testament. Unlike Jews, however, they believe that Gods dwelling place is Mount Gerizim in the present-day West Bank, rather than Mount Zion in Jerusalem.Most of the text on the marble reflects biblical verses familiar to both Christian and Jewish traditions, per a statement from Sothebys. However, it only lists nine of the commonly known commandments, leaving out Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain. In its place is a directive to worship at Mount Gerizim. According to Sothebys, the tablet may have once appeared on display in a Samaritan synagogue or private home.This remarkable tablet is not only a vastly important historic artifact, but a tangible link to the beliefs that helped shape Western civilization, says Richard Austin, Sothebys global head of books and manuscripts, in the statement. To encounter this shared piece of cultural heritage is to journey through millennia and connect with cultures and faiths told through one of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Ancient Civilizations, Archaeology, Artifacts, Auctions, Bible, Christianity, Historical Documents, History, Israel, Judaism, Religion, Religious History, Rituals and Traditions

The 3D bioprinter at the Collins BioMicrosystems Laboratory at the University of Melbourne. University of MelbourneScientists have been fantasizing about the potential of precise 3D bioprinting for years. Just imagine, for example, if doctors could trial therapies on an exact replica of a kidney disease patients kidney until they found the perfect solution for that individualit would have huge implications for the medical field, especially in drug testing. But modern technology has yet to achieve this.Now, however, biomedical engineers in Australia have invented an innovative high-speed bioprinter that brings us one step closer to that ability, and it uses surprising elements: sound, light and bubbles. Their work was presented in a study published in the journal Nature late last month.Currently, scientists have only limited ways to create tissue for testing pharmaceutical therapies, such as using lab-grown samples or by relying on traditional 3D bioprinting, per Popular Sciences Andrew Paul. However, cultivating organs in a lab is complex and expensiveand printing them is currently slow and prone to errors, such as positioning cells incorrectly.Incorrect cell positioning is a big reason most 3D bioprinters fail to produce structures that accurately represent human tissue, David Collins, head of the Collins BioMicrosystems Laboratory at the University of Melbourne and a co-author of the study, says in a statement.But with our new approach, Collins and two other researchers write in an article for Pursuit, not only can we position cells with precision, we can also fabricate at a scale of single cells.So, how does it work? The new printer projects light onto a resin bubble to harden it into the desired shape, while a speaker emits sound waves that make the bubble vibrate. These waves help position the individual cells and dramatically speed up the process. In fact, this innovative printing is 350 times faster than traditional methods, per the statement.What were doing is we are shining light in a 2D pattern acrossand this is kind of what is the distinguishing feature for this technologywe are printing across a bubble, Collins explains to ABC Melbournes Raf Epstein. Were continuously changing those projections that are curing the individual layers as we go through that, he adds. The fundamental principle is that we can shine light onto a material, and we can create a solid.Because the tissue floats in resin as it is printed, the bioprinter can also create really delicate structures using really soft materials, softer than anything currently being used, Collins tells New Scientists James Woodford. Being able to accurately reproduce the consistency of human tissue is fundamental. He adds that they can even print analogs of different parts of the body, such as bone, tendons and skin.Additionally, the floating tissue doesnt need to be printed onto a solid platform, in contrast to traditional methods. Instead, it can be printed directly into a Petri dish, vial or lab plate. This increases the cells survival rate by avoiding the need to physically handle the material, which in traditional bioprinters sometimes contaminates and harms the cells.For now, the team has only printed tiny samples with a diameter of 3 centimeters, a length of 7 centimeters and a resolution of 15 micrometers, per New Scientist. And the team writes in Pursuit that completely 3D-printing organs is still a bit futuristic.But they have a bold vision for that future. This technology, researchers say, could be used to replicate human organs and tissues for more targeted and ethical drug trials, since it would eliminate the need for animal testing. Next, the team plans to work with the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center in Melbourne to further their research.This means that the current one-size-fits-all approach to disease treatment could soon become obsolete, they write in Pursuit. The new printing innovation can help pave the way for more effective, patient-specific therapies in the fight against cancer and other diseases.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: 3D Printing, Australia, Biology, Cancer, Engineering, Health, Innovations, Medicine, New Research, Organs, Technology, Treatment

A whale attacks a boat in Frank Goodrich's 1858 novel "Man upon the sea: or, a history of maritime adventure, exploration, and discovery, from the earliest ages to the present time". Public domain via Wikimedia Commons November 20, 1820, was a bright morning in the heart of the Pacific Ocean, 1,500 nautical miles west of the Galpagos Islands. For the crew of the Essex, it was a day flecked with hope: The lookouts atop the whale-shipinspire Herman Melvilles great American novel, Moby-Dick.The Essex began its final journey in August 1819, departing its home island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, for the sperm-whale-rich Pacific Ocean. The 238-ton ship, built in 1799, was around 100 tons smaller and two decades older than the sleekest ships coming out of Nantucket. But based on the financial success of its previous voyages in search of sperm oila high-quality lighting oil derived from the spermaceti organ in the head of the sperm whaleit was considered a desirable, even lucky, ship by local whalers.But the Essexs luck didnt last. From the outset of its 1819 voyage, its crew faced difficultiesor, to a superstitious 19th-century sailor, bad omens. On the second day at sea, a squall knocked the ship completely on its side. The whole ships crew were, for a short time, thrown into the utmost consternation and confusion, first mate Owen Chase wrote in his account of the voyage, Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex. They lost two whaling boatssmaller vessels used to approach and kill whalesbut kept moving ahead. A sketch of a whale striking theEssexby sailor Thomas Nickerson, a former cabin boy on theEssex. Thomas Nickerson via Public domain via Wikimedia Commons The ships success in whale hunting was just as mercurial, with dry spells followed by successful sprees. But after rounding Cape Horn and quietly tracing the Chilean coast to little avail, its sailors found overwhelming success off of Peru in the new year, filling 450 barrels with oil from 11 whales in just two months.The pace exhausted the crew, but when a lookout spotted a shoal of sperm whales on the morning of November 20, the sailors lowered and manned the whale boats in pursuit nonetheless. Chases team harpooned a whale early on, but it thrashed its tail against the boat, and the men retreated to the Essex.There, Chase observed a very large spermaceti whale rapidly approachingand then ramming intothe ship. After an appalling and tremendous jar, the Essex brought up as suddenly and violently as if she had struck a rock, and trembled for a few seconds like a leaf.The whale convulsed on the surface of the waves for a moment before charging again. It appeared with tenfold fury and vengeance, Chase wrote. It smashed its head into the bow, completely rupturing the ships hull before swimming away. An image of a whale attacking the Essexin Mariners Chronicle, New Haven, 1834. Public Domain via Nantucket Historical AssociationThe crew made for the remaining whale boats, and together with those who had not yet returned to the Essex, spent the next few days salvaging supplies from the wreckage, rigging up new sails on the small craft and debating where to sail for salvation. They ultimately decided to head 2,000 nautical miles to the coast of South America, avoiding nearer islands.All the sufferings of these miserable men might, in all human probability, have been avoided had they immediately after leaving the wreck, steered straight for Tahiti, from which they were not very distant at the time, a young Melville jotted in his copy of Chases Narrative, which later inspired him to tell a tragic whaling tale of his own. But they dreaded cannibals.Ironically and tragically, the crew eventually succumbed to cannibalism themselves over the months that followed. As they drifted at sea and landed on deserted islands, members of the voyage were separated from one another, dying of starvation, dehydration and disease. At first, the sailors only ate comrades who had died naturally. Then, on February 1, 1821, the survivors cast lots to determine who would be sacrificed to feed the others. The unlucky victim submitted to his executions with great fortitude and resignation, Chase later wrote.Later that month, a British vessel picked up the stragglers in Chases group, who were so weak they had to be lifted onto the ship. The captains boat was rescued in mid-March117 days after the sinking. Of the 20 or 21 whalers who left Nantucket on the Essex, only eight survived.Upon Chases return to his family, who had given me up for lost, his unexpected appearance was welcomed with the most grateful obligations and acknowledgements to a beneficent Creator, who had guided me through darkness, trouble and death, once more to the bosom of my country and friends. Readers have reason for gratitude, too: Though Melvilles Essex-inspired novel was a flop upon publication, it has since become part of the canon of American literature. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

The team used A.I. algorithms to combine more than 400,000 photos into a comprehensive, three-dimensional model of the Catholic church. MicrosoftPeople around the world can now explore St. Peters Basilica from the comfort of home via a 3D replica powered by artificial intelligence.Released earlier this month, the virtual experience is the product of a collaboration between the Vatican and Microsoft, which cataloged every nook and cranny of the basilica, including parts that the public rarely sees, such as the papal tombs and artwork in the churchs dome.Online users can skip the long wait to enter the physical basilica in Vatican City, instead taking guided tours on the life of St. Peter and the basilicas history or virtually wandering around to whatever area of the site catches their eye.The world's first 3D replica of St. Peter's Basilica, made with Microsoft AIWatch on Per a statement, experts at Iconem, a cultural heritage digitization start-up, spent three weeks using drones, cameras and lasers to capture more than 400,000 photographs of the basilica. The amount of photogrammetry data collected amounts to nearly 22 petabytesthe equivalent of filling up five million DVDs, Microsoft President Brad Smith tells the Associated Press Nicole Winfield.After collecting the images, the team utilized A.I. algorithms to combine the photos into a comprehensive, three-dimensional model of the church. As the statement notes, tools developed by Microsofts A.I. for Good Lab refined the digital twin with millimeter-level accuracy, in addition to identifying deterioration and damage caused by high traffic and centuries of general wear and tear. The lab previously drew on similar technology to virtually transport visitors back in time to the site of the first Olympic Games, ancient Olympia, more than 2,000 years ago.This is an opportunity to use the power of artificial intelligence to see this basilica in a way that perhaps no previous generation has seen before, says Smith in a statement quoted by Artnet News Richard Whiddington. A glimpse into the digitization process MicrosoftConstruction of St. Peters Basilica began in 1506 under Pope Julius II and wrapped up 109 years later, under Paul V in 1615. The basilica is home to many artifacts of the Catholic Church, including the tombs of dozens of popes. The new digitization debuted ahead of the Vaticans 2025 Jubilee, a special celebration of forgiveness and reconciliation that is expected to bring around 30 million people to Rome next year.As Forbes Leslie Katz reports, Pope Francis, the current head of the Catholic Church, encouraged the Fabbrica di San Pietro, the organization that maintains the historic building, to use the latest technologies to care for the basilica both spiritually and materially.Francis has been a vocal proponent of ethical A.I., calling for an open dialogue on the subject in an August 2023 address.The urgent need to orient the concept and use of artificial intelligence in a responsible way, so that it may be at the service of humanity and the protection of our common home, requires that ethical reflection be extended to the sphere of education and law, the pope said.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Architecture, Artificial Intelligence, Christianity, Digitization, Italy, Italy Travel, Religion, Religious History

New Exhibition Unravels Sigmund Freuds Complex Relationship With the Women in His Life and WorkWomen & Freud: Patients, Pioneers, Artists spotlights the women who influenced the Austrian neurologistand the field of psychoanalysis more broadly Sigmund Freud in the office of his Vienna home in 1930 Bettmann / ContributorWomen intriguedSigmund Freud, but they also baffled him. As the founder of psychoanalysis once said, The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my 30 years of research into the feminine soul, is What does a woman want?Freud learned a lot from the women around him, including his patients, his peers and his daughters. Now, 85 years after the Austrian neurologists death, a new exhibition at Londons Freud Museum explores his complicated relationship with women.Women & Freud: Patients, Pioneers, Artists fills the entire museum, which was Freuds last home and workplace. It incorporates historic artifactssuch as manuscripts, letters, photos, objects, diaries and film footageas well as contemporary works by women artists. The exhibition also explores the history of theHogarth Press, which began publishing Freuds work 100 years ago.The neurologist famously developed manycontroversialand often incorrect or misogynistictheories about women during his lifetime. The exhibition aims to present this part of Freuds work in a new light, arguing that it may have inadvertently advanced the feminist revolutions that came later.Did the talking cure give women the power to speak in their own voice? writes the museum on the exhibition website. Did Freud raise womens private, secret thoughts and emotions into a public (and scientific) discourse so that they could consider their own sexuality openly, even if in argument with him? Where does sexual difference elide into gendered expectations or prohibitions? These are some of the questions the exhibition raises through its women.The show is the first to celebrate the women in Freuds world, according to the Art Newspapers Maev Kennedy. Many of his patients went on to become successful psychoanalysts themselves. The exhibition explores womens professional contributions not just to the fields of child psychology and child development, but to the very tenets of psychoanalysis, Michael Marder, the author of a forthcoming book on Freud, tells the Observers Vanessa Thorpe.An entire room of the museum is dedicated to Anna Freud, Freuds youngest daughter, who went on to become a pioneering psychoanalyst in her own right. The exhibition also celebratesMelanie Klein,Juliet Mitchell,Julia Kristeva,Helene Deutsch and Marie Bonaparte.Bonaparte was Napoleons great-grandniece, and she helped Freud, who was Jewish, escape the Nazis in 1938. Despite the outsized role the last Bonaparte played in the history of psychoanalysis, too few are aware of her significant contributions, according to themuseum.The artworks featured in the exhibition include spreads from Alison Bechdels graphic memoirAre You My Mother? andPaula Regos cloth dollies. Also on view is Sarah Lucas SEX BOMB, a concrete and bronze sculpture of a stiletto-clad figure slumped over in a chair.The exhibitions effort to recast the story of Freuds relationship to women in a positive lightindeed the relation of psychoanalysis to femininityis laudable, writesSimon Wortham, a scholar of literature and philosophy at Kingston University in London, in theConversation. However, it is left to art to retell this tale through more disturbing interventions.Women & Freud: Patients, Pioneers, Artists is on view at the Freud Museum in London through May 5, 2025.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Sarah Kuta| READ MORESarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.Filed Under: Art, Arts, European History, Exhibitions, Exhibits, London, Museums, Psychology, Women's History

The proudly juttingand sometimes-imperiledterraces above the cataract that gave the world-famous house its name. Ezra Stoller / EstoIn 1995, when Frank Lloyd Wrights Fallingwater was less than 60 years old, a group of engineers traveled to the rural highlands outside Pittsburgh to inspect the houses iconic cantilevered terraces, thrust out over their waterfall in defiance of gravityand, as it turned out, of good sense. Even before construction was completed in 1937, cracks had appeared in the concrete parapets. By the mid-1990s, the balconies had sagged in some places by more than seven inches. You could feel them bounceit was like a diving board, saysLynda Waggoner, who started guiding tours at Fallingwater as a teenager in 1965 and served as the house-museums director from 1996 to 2018. The extravagant gesture that made Fallingwater the most famous modern house in the United States had nearly brought the entire magnificent structure crashing down.Hailed almost immediately as Wrights masterpiece, Fallingwater was also an uncomfortably apt metaphor for a difficult period in the architects career. Wrights earlier houses, with their open floorplans and horizontal thrust, had helped revolutionize early 20th-century architecture. When images of those so-called Prairie Houses traveled to Berlin in 1910, future godfathers of architectural modernism like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius were astounded: Wright had taken the massive structures of the 19th century and exploded them outward, with long, low rooflines that seemed to float free from the walls below. Back in the Midwestern U.S., Wrights caustic approach to clients and his disregard for conventionincluding his choice in 1909 to abandon his family and run off with the wife of a former clientmade him persona non grata among his patrons. Fallingwaters interior offers a startlingly intimate view of surrounding nature, an aesthetic that Wright called organic architecture. Ezra Stoller / EstoSubscribe to Smithsonian magazine now for just $19.99This article is a selection from the December 2024 issue of Smithsonian magazineBy the 1920s, Wrights hipped roofs and elaborate ornamentation had come to seem almost quaint compared with the glossy, streamlined sophistication of European modernism. When the newly founded Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York mounted its landmark 1932 exhibition on modern architecture, the curators relegated Wright to the role of a half-modern precursor to the real revolution, which theyd dubbed the International Style. Wright, hungry for adulation, and desperate for work, was enraged by the slight. I find myself rather a man without a country, architecturally speaking, he complained in a letter to the architect Philip Johnson, a co-curator of the MoMA show. Fallingwater, commissioned in 1934 as a vacation home by department store magnate Edgar Kaufmann Sr., would be Wrights opportunity to beat the internationalists at their own game, as he reportedly said at the time.There in the Appalachian backwoods, Wright took key elements of modernismlike cantilevers, flat roofs and ribbon windowsand made them organic, privileging forms and materials that drew on, and integrated with, the natural world. Rather than leaving the edges of his cantilevered balconies razor-straight and dazzlingly white, he rounded their edges and painted them the color of Pueblo adobe. He clad the walls with local sandstone and fronted the cabinets with lustrous North Carolina walnut. Fallingwater made modernism seem romantic, lyrical and deeply American. As the historian Franklin Toker wrote in his 2003 book Fallingwater Rising, the house changed Americans view of modernism from something foreign and suspect to something homegrown and patriotic.Fallingwater also resurrected Wrights moribund career. Before long, pictures of the home were everywhere, especially the indelible shot taken from the base of the falls, the house soaring over those rushing cataracts. In January 1938 alone, Wright graced the cover of Timewith Fallingwater in the backgroundand Architectural Forum dedicated an entire issue to his work, with the Kaufmann house as his crowning achievement. That month, even MoMA, the site of Wrights 1932 snub, dedicated a show to the Kaufmann house. Wright was undoubtedly the worlds greatest living architect, the critic Lewis Mumford gushed in the New Yorker. He can swing a cantilever across space, using the method of construction not as a clich of modernism but as a rational engineering solution of a real problem. Of course, Mumford had only seen the house in pictures and had no idea that those glorious cantilevers were the real problem. The sagging, cracking parapetsan engineering error on Wrights partnever prevented the Kaufmanns from using the house. They did, however, concern Edgar Kaufmann Sr. enough that he measured them regularly from 1941 until his death in 1955. In any event, cracks and deflections are hardly visible in photos, and Fallingwater, perhaps more than any Wright building, makes for an iconic, unforgettable image, says architecture historian Barry Bergdoll.The engineers who turned up in 1995 did manage to rescue the house from its builders dazzling, flawed vision. But to judge Fallingwater based solely on its engineering is to miss the point. Durability alone would never have satisfied Wrights ambitions, nor would it have won Fallingwater its singular place in American architectural history. In 1963, Edgar Kaufmann Jr., a Wright acolyte, donated the house to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, which opened Fallingwater to the public the following year. Over the past six decades, some 6.3 million have visited, mainly laypeople, who tend to love Wright more than architects do. Unlike a lot of modernist buildings, Fallingwater is a visceral and emotional experience more than an intellectual one, Waggoner says. It evokes the American desire to exalt nature and dominate it, to claim modernity and reject it. It is an imperfect house, and a perfect expression of the American landscape it inhabits: fragile and well worth saving.Wright-HandWomanToo often forgotten, Marion Mahony Griffin was an inventive and remarkable architectBy Michael Snyder Marion Mahony Griffins rendering of the front of a stately residence designed in Calcutta by her husband, Walter, circa 1936. Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia UniversityMarion Mahoneygraduated with a bachelors degree in architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1894only the second woman in the schools history to do so. A year later, the Chicago native became Frank Lloyd Wrights first employee at his upstart architecture firm in her hometown. A brilliant graphic artist with a deep interest in Japanese printmaking, Mahony created the signature aesthetic of Wrights perspective drawings, bursting with exquisite detail. She also made the drawings for fully half of the 100 lithographs in the 1910 Wasmuth Portfolio, a compendium of Wrights creations that inspired a generation of European architects, changing the course of 20th-century design. Never quick to cede credit, Wright rarely acknowledged his enormous debt to his brilliant young colleague. The architect pictured circa 1935, just before she left Australia to design buildings for the University of Lucknow in India. National Library of AustraliaIndeed, Mahony took over some projects entirely, as when Wright abandoned his family and practice to move to Europe in 1909, leaving Mahony, along with her colleague Hermann V. von Holst, to complete the designs for several houses in Illinois and Michigan. For the landscape designs of some of those projects, she collaborated closely with a former Wright employee named Walter Burley Griffin. The two married in 1911 and, shortly after, submitted a winning plan for Australias new federal capital city of Canberra. From 1914 to 1936, the Griffins lived and worked in Australia, dedicating much of their time to town planning and an architecture that could capture and cultivate a spirit of democracy. Get the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox.Filed Under: Architects, Architecture, Rituals and Traditions

The cub belongs to the species,Homotherium latidens,and was unearthed from theBadyarikha River in Yakutia, Siberia. A.V. Lopatin et al., Scientific Reports 2024While searching for mammoth tusks in eastern Siberia, scavengers found a rare ice mummy along the banks of the Badyarikha River. One of the many treasures to be unearthed in Siberia, the finding turned out to be a three-week-old saber-toothed kitten preserved in the permafrost.The study, published on Thursday in Scientific Reports, describes the frozen kittens 35,000-year-old body. The mummy contains the head and front parts of the animal, including fur and muzzle, making it possible for scientists to study these for the first time.This amazing find is one of the most exciting moments of my career, says Manuel J. Salesa, a paleontologist at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid who was not involved in the study, to the New York Times Asher Elbein.Many paleontologists working with felids, including myself, have been hoping for decades to see a frozen saber-tooth felid from the permafrost, he adds.Using radiocarbon dating, the researchers found that the cub lived somewhere between 35,500 to 37,000 years ago. It also belonged to the species Homotherium latidens, and lived in the Late Pleistocene. Judging by its incisors, scientists estimate it was about three weeks old.Alexey V. Lopatin, director of the Borissiak Paleontological Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences and author of the study, tells NBC News Mirna Alsharif that it was a fantastic feeling to see such a long-extinct animal.Siberias cold and dry conditions, with part of the region sitting above the Arctic Circle, make it easy to preserve ancient fossils. The permafrost layer, underneath an active soil, is frozen sediment that has remained so for two or more years. This is the layer where well-preserved fossils are often found, including a mummified woolly rhino and a 32,000-year-old wolf head.Although other bones of Homotherium have been found, this rare cub marked the first time the appearance of an extinct mammal that has no analogues in the modern fauna has been studied, the study authors write.Other frozen Homotheriums will surely be unearthed, Lopatin tells the New York Times. Salesa, the paleontologist in Madrid, tells the outlet he hopes the researchers find adults. That would be absolutely shocking, he adds.Lopatin and his colleagues were able to study the cubs neck and tufts of fur, even its paws. This is where the permafrost layer played an important role, as the muscles, bones and skin are well preserved in the permafrost ice, Lopatin tells Gizmodos Isaac Schultz. Forepaws of three-week-old large felid cubs: TheA,B, and, belong to the frozen mummy cub,Homotherium latidens,while D belongs to a modern lion. A.V. Lopatin et al., Scientific Reports 2024The cub had no carpal pads, a physical trait common in cats and dogs, which may have been useful for walking on snow, says Lopatin, per the New York Times. The study also notes that the cub had a large stout neck, different than those of modern lion cubs.The cubs dark brown fur, however, was perhaps the most surprising thing, Lopatin tells the outlet. The well-preserved carcass offers a new glimpse into the extinct species. Previous descriptions were drawn from fossil bones, but the mummified cub provides insight into their soft tissue anatomy.DNA can be extracted, and this is one of the next stages of our research, Lopatin tells Gizmodo.The team is already working on another study where theyll discuss the anatomical features of the cub in more detail, they write in the new paper. For now, at least, the remarkable frozen cub offers a snapshot of a time long gone, when woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats roamed Earth.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Cats, Fossils, History, Mummies, Russia

The near side of the moon has been studied more extensively than the far side. Dinkun Chen, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia CommonsScientists analyzed the first and thus far only rock samples from the far side of the moon to understand how the area differs from the familiar near sideThe moon takes the same amount of time to orbit around our planet as it does to rotate around its axis, which means that from Earth we can only ever see the same side of the moon. Though this near side has been studied via telescopes, crewed missions, orbiting spacecrafts and more, the scientific community has had far fewer opportunities to study its mysterious counterpart.Out of sight, however, doesnt always mean out of mind. In June, Chinas Change 6 lunar lander returned to Earth with the first soil samples ever collected from the far side of the Moon.Now, two studies of the samples published in the journals Nature and Science have just confirmed that the moons other half had active volcanoes billions of years ago.Imagine having rock samples from maybe ten locations in North America, and thats what you know about Earth, Stephen Elardo, a planetary scientist at the University of Florida in Gainesville who was not involved in the studies, tells Science News Lisa Grossman. Then all of a sudden you get your first rocks from South Africa or Australia. Now you get to have that as another data point to learn about the whole planet. Thats basically what this is for the moon.While scientists already knew of ancient volcanic history on the moons near side, previous research had hypothesized the presence of long-extinct volcanoes on the far side as well. These two studies now confirm it.The more than four pounds of lunar soil included fragments of basalt (a type of volcanic rock), most of which the scientists dated to approximately 2.8 billion years ago via radioisotope dating, which analyzes the rate of radioactive decay. A single basalt fragment dates to about 4.2 billion years ago, and is the oldest known lunar basalt sample brought back to Earth.To obtain a sample from this area is really important because its an area that otherwise we have no data for, Christopher Hamilton, a planetary volcano expert at the University of Arizona who was not involved with the research, tells the Associated Press Adithi Ramakrishnan.The age of the far side samples indicate that region of the moon had volcanic activity 4.2 billion years ago and 2.8 billion years agoand during the period in between. Near side samples had previously suggested that the moon experienced volcanic activity from around 4 billion years ago to about 3 billion years ago, per Science News Lisa Grossman.Both teams of researchers also noted that the 2.8-billion-year-old basalt samples had relatively low levels of KREEPpotassium (K), rare-earth elements (REE) and phosphorus (P)which contrasts with higher levels in near side lunar samples. The decay of radioactive materials in KREEP creates heat, and it could have driven the prolonged duration of volcanic activity on the visible side. But scientists aren't sure, without high levels of those elements, how the far side stayed molten for so long, Elardo tellsScience News. Distribution of distinct volcanic episodes on the moon's far side. The remote sensing image highlights the Chang'e-6 landing site. Yang MuhanThe relatively young age of the basalts (retrieved by Change-6) is surprising along with the composition being practically devoid of radioactive elements, Clive R. Neal, a planetary geologist at the University of Notre Dame and co-author of the Science study, tells CNNs Katie Hunt. It prompts the question how and why were these magmas generated, Neal addsThe asymmetry between the Moons near side and far side remains an unresolved mystery, says Qiu-li Li, a co-author of the Nature paper and a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Geology and Geophysics, to CNN. The China National Space Administration will allow international scientists to apply to study the samples. Further research might one day explain the differences between the two sides of the Moon.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Astronomy, China, Geology, Moon, New Research, Outer Space, Volcanoes

Steadfast Stride Toward Justice by artistBasil Watson isthe first life-sized depiction of John Lewis in his home state. Equal Justice InitiativeA bronze statue of John Lewis, the celebrated civil rights leader and congressman, was unveiled last week in his home state of Alabama. Titled Steadfast Stride Toward Justice, the artwork depicts Lewis marching forward with his hands in his pockets.The sculpture is located at theEqual Justice Initiatives (EJI) Legacy Plaza in Montgomery, where statues of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. debuted earlier this year, according to AL.coms Heather Gann. Its the first life-sized sculpture of Lewis in the state.John Lewis inspired so many of us to do the justice work we do today, says Bryan Stevenson, EJIs director, in astatement. His humility, dedication and commitment to fighting for people who are excluded and disfavored is a model and legacy urgently needed today. We are thrilled to honor his life and leadership at Legacy Plaza.Born in 1940, Lewis was the son of sharecroppers living near Troy, Alabama. He developed a deep devotion to civil rights activism as a young man, participating in sit-ins, the Freedom Rides and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In 1965, when he was 25, Lewis led hundreds of people in a march across Selmas Edmund Pettus Bridge, which would become known as Bloody Sunday. Law enforcement officers attacked the peaceful protestersincluding Lewis, who fractured his skull.The national news that night showed the horrific footage of a state trooper savagely beating him with a nightstick, recalled Smithsonian SecretaryLonnie G. Bunch IIIin astatement after Lewis death. But it also showed Mr. Lewis, head bloodied but spirit unbroken, delaying a trip to the hospital for treatment of a fractured skull so he could plead with President [Lyndon B.] Johnson to intervene in Alabama.In 1987, Lewis was elected to the United States House of Representatives, where he represented Georgias Fifth District for more than three decades until his death in 2020.I just think the entire state of Alabama owes John Lewis so much, because he pulled us all out of the darkness ofJim Crow and racial segregation, Stevenson tells theAssociated Press. He created the opportunities that we get to celebrate in so many of our public spaces, from football fields to basketball places. It wouldnt have been possible without his courage.All three of the statues in the Legacy Plaza were created by Atlanta-based sculptor Basil Watson, who was present at the unveiling. Local officials and members of Lewis family also attended.Lewis nephew, Jerrick Lewis, spoke at the ceremony. According to theMontgomery Advertisers Alex Gladden, he told the crowd that while the fight for equality may be an ongoing one, I believe we would all agree we have come a mighty long way.Around the world, there are many murals and statues and other landmarks that are dedicated to my uncle, he said. But to have a statue here in Montgomery proves that if the boy from Troy can make a lasting impact on the world, so can we.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Activism, African American History, American History, American South, Civil Rights, Congress, History, Martin Luther King, Jr., Protest, Rosa Parks, Sculpture, Smithsonian Institution, Statues

Endangered Sierra Nevada Yellow-Legged Frogs Are Making a ComebackScientists are celebrating the recovery of the species in Yosemite National Park, where they were decimated by the introduction of non-native fish and the deadly amphibian chytrid fungus Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs are rebounding from near-extinction in California. University of California Santa BarbaraAfter nearly disappearing for good, Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs are once again hopping happily around Californias alpine lakes.Scientists are celebrating the comeback of the amphibians (Rana sierrae) in Yosemite National Park. Though theyre still endangered, Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs have made a remarkably successful recovery from the deadly amphibian chytrid fungus, researchers report this month in the journal Nature Communications.The lakes are alive again, completely transformed, says study co-author Roland Knapp, a biologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to USA Todays Elizabeth Weise. You literally can look down the shoreline and see 50 frogs on one side and 50 on the other and in the water you see 100 to 1,000 tadpoles. Its a completely different lake.Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs are small creatures measuring 1.5 to 3.75 inches long, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They live high in Californias Sierra Nevada mountain range, at elevations between 4,500 and 12,000 feet above sea level. The frogs inhabit marshes, ponds, lakes and streams, where they feast on bugs and other amphibians. They also serve as a source of food for birds, snakes, coyotes and bears. Dozens of frogs are now visible along the shores of some alpine lakes in the Eastern Sierra. Roland KnappSierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs tend to have yellowish-orange bellies and dark, splotchy backs, but their coloring can vary widelyfrom greenish-brown to gray to red. They dont have vocal sacks, so instead the frogs grind their teeth together underwater when trying to attract mates in the spring.The frogs were once abundant throughout the Sierra Nevada. But, after the arrival of European settlers in the mid-19th century during the California gold rush, their numbers began to dwindle.In addition to gold, miners also discovered more than 1,500 alpine lakes in California. The lakes were beautiful, but they were lacking in fishso the miners began stocking them. The introduction of non-native speciesincluding rainbow trout, grayling and Atlantic salmondecimated the Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs.Stocking ended in the 1990s, but even without help from humans, the non-native fish continued to reproduce and thrive. Then, in the early 2000s, the few surviving frogs in the Sierra Nevada faced yet another threat: the amphibian chytrid fungus.The highly contagious fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) causes chytridiomycosis, an infectious skin disease that has caused mass die-offs and extinctions among amphibians around the world. In 2014, with their populations crashing, Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs were added to the endangered species list.But then scientists noticed something peculiar: In some places, Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog numbers were increasing. It appeared that at least some of the small creaturesparticularly those living in lakes without any non-native fishhad developed a resistance to the fungus. Scientists carefully transported frogs that appeared to be resistant to the fungus to other lakes. Roland KnappThe frogs that survive better have certain variations in their genomes, says Erica Bree Rosenblum, a biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, to ScienceNews Martin J. Kernan. Since theyre the ones surviving, theyre passing their genes down, and over time the whole population is changing toward having these more favorable genetic mutations.Researchers decided to implement an ambitious plan to save the species. Starting in 2006, they began gathering up the fungus-resistant survivors and re-introducing them to other alpine lakes without fish.Now, nearly two decades later, scientists say their plan worked. These Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog populations are now mostly self-sustaining and have a low probability of extinction over 50 years, they write in the paper. They hope the successful reintroduction of Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs might serve as a source of inspiration for scientists working to save other species battling new diseases.These frogs have somehow figured out how to exist, even thrive in the face of this pathogen, Knapp tells the San Francisco Chronicles Kurtis Alexander. When I saw these frog populations recovering on their own, that was the first time in 15 years working on this species that I felt a glimmer of hope.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, California, Disease, Disease and Illnesses, Endangered Species, Frogs, Fungus, Mountains, Water, wildlife

American civil rights leader Susan B. Anthony Public Domain by Wikimedia CommonsOn November 18, 1872, a deputy federal marshal confronted Susan B. Anthony at her Rochester, New York, home. She was under arrest for the crime of voting in the 1872 presidential election two weeks earlier, and the marshal asked her to come downtown to meet with a commissioner.Is that the way you arrest men? she later recalled asking. When the marshal told her no, Anthony demanded to be arrested properly.At the time, votinglike a proper arrestwas a privilege only afforded to New Yorks men. But before Election Day, Anthony successfully registered to vote, arguing that the 14th Amendmentin particular the section ensuring that no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United Statesgave her the right.Usually, suffragists adopting this tactic were stopped before they could actually register. But Anthony and 14 other women in the First Election District of Rochesters Eighth Ward were surprisingly successful and were permitted to register after discussing the amendment with election workers.At the voting site a few days later, the newly registered Anthony attempted to vote for incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant and all other Republicans on the ballot. A poll watcher named Sylvester Lewis asked her if she was a citizen, if she lived in the district and if she had taken bribes for her vote. Her answers were all deemed satisfactory, and she was allowed to cast her ballot.Nine days after the election, however, court officials issued warrants for the arrest of Anthony and her fellow illegal voters based on a further complaint from Lewis. Though all 15 women were arrested, the prosecution singled out Anthony. Only she was indicted and brought to trial in circuit court.What Crime Did Susan B. Anthony Commit?Watch on The trial began on June 17, 1873, in front of a jury of 12 men and presiding judge Supreme Court Justice Ward Hunt, who sometimes heard federal circuit court cases as part of his duties. The prosecutions criminal charges rested on two simple facts: Anthony was a woman who had cast a ballot. Since these charges were difficult for Anthonys defense to deny, her lawyers instead argued that her act of voting lacked the indispensable ingredient of all crime, a corrupt intention and that she was simply exercising her rights in good faith.In the verdict of United States v. Anthony, Hunt ruled that the right to vote was not among the privileges or immunities that the 14th Amendment protected, asserting that good faith was not a sufficient defense. Hunt refused to let Anthony testify, insisting that the jury had nothing else to decide and ordering them to find her guilty.Though the court fined Anthony $100, she refused to pay up. I will never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty, she told Hunt at the closing of the case. And I shall earnestly and persistently continue to urge all women to the practical recognition of the old Revolutionary maxim, Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.Hunter wanted to avoid the possibility of Anthony appealing the federal case, a move that would have put the issue of womens suffrage before the U.S. Supreme Court. So he did not jail Anthony for failure to pay the fine, and she never paid. The voting inspectors who allowed the 15 women to register were fined $25 each, but they also refused to pay.Anthonys groundbreaking case helped move along her cause, and a few years later, Senator Aaron A. Sargenthusband of suffragist Ellen Clark Sargentproposed amending the U.S. Constitution in Anthonys name. But federal lawmakers did not pass a constitutional amendment guaranteeing a womans right to vote until 191941 years after it was first proposed and 13 years after Anthonys death.On August 18, 2020the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendments ratificationPresident Donald Trump pardoned Anthony of her federal conviction. But the National Susan B. Anthony Museum and House in Rochester rejected the pardon. In a statement, the museums president noted that Anthony never paid a dollar of her $100 fine. To pay would have been to validate the proceedings, she said. To pardon Susan B. Anthony does the same.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Law, On This Day in History, Supreme Court, Susan B. Anthony, Women's Rights

An illustration of opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsOn November 17, 1869, the esteemed guests of Ismail Pasha, Ottoman viceroy of Egypt, gathered on the Mediterranean coast for a truly world-shaping event: the official opening ceremony of the Suez Canal.The event was spectacular, meant to impress attendees with the commercial and cultural possibilities of an engineering project designed, in the words of Scottish journalist Alexander Russel, to unite the East and West not only in commerce but ideas, and so greatly bless humanity.As European royalty arrived in their yachts, celebratory cannons thundered forth welcome, till ears were stunned with sound and the atmosphere thickened with smoke, Russel wrote.The 120-mile-long canal had taken ten years to dig and was considered what Russel called the greatest service to the commerce of the world since the discovery of America. Much of the fanfare was reserved for Ferdinand de Lesseps, the French developer who obtained the political and financial support that enabled the canals construction. But de Lesseps was certainly not the first to imagine a canal linking the Mediterranean and Red Seasand, by extension, Europe and Asiathrough the Isthmus of Suez.How the Suez Canal changed the world - Lucia CarminatiWatch on The idea was ancient, likely dating to the reign of the Egyptian pharaoh Senusret III, who envisioned and commissioned a similar project in the 19th century B.C.E. The so-called Canal of the Pharaohs connected the Red Sea to the Nile, which in turn flowed out to the Mediterranean. But its extent is contested by historians, and the canal closed in 767 C.E. in order to cut off trade to the rebellious cities of Mecca and Medina on the Arabian peninsula.In 1798, during Frances brief Egyptian conquest, the French discovered evidence of the ancient canal and sought to reconstruct its path. The strategic and economic advantage of a canal under French imperial control would be immense. But a civil engineering survey wrongly concluded that the sea levels on either side of the isthmus were offset by 30 feet, necessitating a massive system of locks that engineers were not yet equipped to build. The project was abandoned.Over half a century later, the idea came back into vogue with the Suez Canal Company, which would oversee construction of the canal, give 15 percent of profit to the Egyptian state and maintain control over the canal for 99 years, after which Egypt would assume responsibility.To finance the massive and unprecedented engineering project, de Lesseps and the Suez Canal Company courted foreign investors, chiefly from Western Europe. Construction began in 1859, with conscripted Egyptian peasants digging through the earth by hand and pick. Work was hard and slow, beset by poor weather; disease; and a cruel, inefficient labor system.After ten years of digging, the massive Suez Canal finally opened for transit.A procession of ships began the journey, led by a boat whose passengers included the empress of France and de Lesseps. According to one British observer, the ships passed in dignified array acclaimed by teeming multitudes crowding the arid banks of the burning desert.Those masses witnessed the first moments of a narrow yet critical canal that reduced the distance between Europe and Asia by more than 4,000 miles and would become a flashpoint for global conflicts for decades to come.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Albert Hoffman, the chemist who first synthesized LSD, as photographed in 1976 Noldi Kng / RDB / ullstein bild via Getty ImagesWhen chemist Albert Hofmann moved to small, straight-laced Basel, Switzerland, in 1929, he had no intention of becoming the first man to synthesize, ingest and record his experimentations with lysergic acid diethylamide, the psychedelic drug commonly known as LSD that became a countercultural touchstone in the following decades.I did not choose LSD, he later recalled. LSD found and called me.Really, LSD was just an unremarkable side product of his main research developing a respiratory and circulatory drug derived from ergot, a fungus found in rotting rye, for the pharmaceutical wing of Swiss chemical company Sandoz.In the Middle Ages, ergot was considered a poisonous scourge, causing spasms, gangrene and death if ingested in significant quantities through rye. St. Anthonys fire, as ergotism was then known, left millions of patients writhing with hallucinations and burning sensations. These dramatic and frightening symptoms of ergotism even inspired accusations of witchcraft.But in small doses, ergot had useful medicinal qualities, including as an aid in childbirth and abortion. The trick for chemists was to chemically isolate and purify ergots beneficial components while avoiding its deadly side effects.Earlier research at the Rockefeller Institute in New York had isolated lysergic acid, a common compound in all ergot alkaloids. Hofmanns task was to add other compounds to stabilize lysergic acid and create an analeptic drug to improve respiration and blood circulation. He would then test each compound on animals and record the effects. This circa 1501 painting by Hieronymus Bosch is titledTriptych of the Temptation of St. Anthony. The center panel contains several references to ergotism, which is also known as St. Anthonys fire. Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsOn November 16, 1938, the 32-year-old chemist tested the 25th combination, an amalgam of lysergic acid and diethylamine, an ammonia derivative. He called it LSD-25 for short. The compound made the test animals restless and twitchy, but Hofmann and other researchers noted nothing else out of the ordinary.The new substance aroused no special interest in our pharmacologists and physicians, Hofmann later wrote. Testing was therefore discontinued.That was that, and for five years, LSD-25 was left on the ash heap of pharmaceutical history, as journalist Tom Shroder wrote in Acid Test. In the meantime, Hofmann synthesized and explored other successful lysergic acid compounds, eventually creating hydergine, a circulatory drug that increases blood flow to the brain.But something about the experiments and the animals odd reactions to LSD-25 stuck with Hofmann. In 1943, he decided to synthesize it again.As he worked, he was interrupted by strange sensations. I was forced to interrupt my work in the laboratory in the middle of the afternoon and proceed home, being affected by a remarkable restlessness, combined with a slight dizziness, Hofmann later wrote in a note to his supervisor. At home I lay down and sank into a not unpleasant intoxicated-like condition, characterized by an extremely stimulated imagination.As he entered a dreamlike state, he continued, I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors. After some two hours this condition faded away.Hofmann had unknowingly ingested a small amount of LSD-25 through the skin of his fingertips, experiencing the first acid trip in human history.Three days later, he began his intentional self-experimentation with LSD, only telling his lab assistant about his unofficial research into the compounds psychedelic effects. Although he continued to work with LSD in the lab, testing it on chimpanzees and small fish, he also experimented privately and in the company of friends.Never, though, did Hofmann predict LSD would reach the countercultural status and widespread usage it has today. It was no accident that Hofmann synthesized LSD on this day in 1938, but the global effects it would have on art, psychiatry and culture were thoroughly beyond his fingertips.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Chemistry, Discoveries, History of Science, Illegal Drugs, Medicine, On This Day in History, Psychology, Switzerland

The researchers made experimental spindles and whorls based on 3D scans of the pebbles. Yashuv and Grosman, PLOS ONE, 2024 under CC-BY 4.0When faced with an assortment of 12,000-year-old perforated pebbles from an archaeological site in northern Israel, researchers wondered if the artifacts could be beads, or perhaps fishing weights. Now, however, theyve come to a much more significant conclusion: The pebbles could be spindle whorls, weighted pieces used in spinning textiles.If that interpretation is true, it would make the pebble collection one of the oldest examples of rotational technology, a crucial prerequisite to the invention of the wheel. The teams findings were published in the journal PLOS ONE on Wednesday.While the perforated pebbles were kept mostly at their natural unmodified shape, they represent wheels in form and function: a round object with a hole in the center connected to a rotating axle, co-author Talia Yashuv, an archaeologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, tells Live Sciences Owen Jarus.Using highly detailed 3D models of the 113 pebbles, the archaeologists noted that the mostly limestone artifacts were roughly donut shaped. The holes measured three to four centimeters in diameter and had been drilled halfway from each side of the pebbles, though some of the pieces had off-center, partially perforated holes.The artifacts had previously been unearthed atNahal Ein Gev II, a roughly 12,000-year-old Late Natufian village close to the Sea of Galilee. Natufian refers to a hunter-gatherer culture that existed in the region of Palestine and southern Syria around 9000 B.C.E. and preceded the transition toward the agricultural practices that mark the Neolithic period.Because of the pebbles irregular shape and weight, Yashuv and her co-author Leore Grosman ruled out the possibilities that they were prehistoric beads or fishing weights. The artifacts were too heavy and odd-looking to be beads, the team concluded, and they were too light and made of the wrong material for use in fishing. Next, they thought of spindle whorls: small, disc-shaped weights with holes that are attached to spindles to make them rotate faster when spinning textiles.The researchers decided to test their hypothesis in real time. They used the 3D models to create precise replicas of the artifacts and asked a traditional textile expert named Yonit Crystal to test them out. After some practice, Crystal was able to successfully spin flaxand, with a bit more difficulty, spin woolinto yarn using the pebbles as spindle whorls. Illustrations representing various spinning methods. (a) Manual thigh-spinning; (b) Spindle-and-whorl "supported spinning"; (c) "drop spinning"; (d) the experimental spindles and whorls and 3D scans of the pebbles and their negative perforations. The photographs show Yonit Crystal spinning fibers with replicas of the perforated pebbles. Yashuv and Grosman, PLOS ONE, 2024 under CC-BY 4.0She was really surprised that they worked, because they werent perfectly round, Yashuv tells New Scientists Christa Lest-Lasserre. But really you just need the perforation to be located at the center of mass, and then its balanced and it works.Yashuv adds that the spindle whorl interpretation is consistent with their observations: The method of drilling halfway from each side of the pebble allows for better balance and thus more controlled spinning, and the pieces with incomplete and off-center holes could have been discarded as mistakes.Because the artifacts are simple limestone pebbles that dont stick out at first glance, the researchers were surprised to learn how they were likely used, Yashuv tells the Times of Israels Gavriel Fiske.If the pebbles are confirmed to be among the oldest examples of spindle whorls, it would mean several things. The most striking is that the artifacts would also represent one of the oldest uses of rotational technologies, which might have paved the way for crucial other advancements, such as potters wheels and traditional cart wheels in the fourth millennium B.C.E.Additionally, it is probable that flax was being spun in small quantities for use in other emerging technologies such as bags and fishing lines, that is to say new methods of storage and subsistence, Alex Joffe, an archaeologist and historian specialized in the Middle East who was not involved in the study, tells Live Science. In other words, the spindle whorl could have been crucial to advancements beyond the wheel.However, archaeological records suggest that the technology died out before re-emerging and taking root in the same region thousands of years later.They went back to something else, and we dont see the same tool for another 4,000 years. When it comes back, whats interesting is that its at a site that is very close by, Yashuv explains to IFLSciences Benjamin Taub.Not everyone is convinced by the researchers interpretation. Carole Cheval, an archaeologist at Cte dAzur University in Nice, France, tells New Scientist that the study should have looked for microscopic traces of the friction caused by yarn on the pebbles. And even if the pebbles are spindle whorls, these tools are more similar to a spinning top than to a wheel, she adds.Ultimately, the most important aspect of the study is how modern technology allows us to delve deep into touching the fingerprints of the prehistoric craftsman, the authors say in a statement, then learn something new about them and their innovativeness, and at the same time, about our modern technology and how were linked.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

One of the images that triggered rumors about astronaut Suni Williams' health. Here, she displays radiation measurement hardware. NASA JohnsonThis fall, NASA released photos of astronaut Suni Williamswho is currently living on the International Space Station (ISS)that triggered an onslaught of tabloid and social media rumors speculating about her health.Articles in the New York Post and the Daily Mail suggested that Williams looked gaunt, and sources quoted by the outlets alleged the astronaut had lost an unhealthy amount of weight.In early November, NASA refuted the claims in a statement emailed to the press. This week, Williams herself negated the rumors in an in-flight interview. Now, James D. Polk, NASAs chief health and medical officer, has once again spoken up to dispel the idea.Ill tell you the astronauts are in absolutely outstanding health and in good condition right now, Polk tells Space.coms Monisha Ravisetti. So, let me just address that rumor right out the front.Williams and fellow NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore are in the middle of an unexpectedly long stay on the ISS. They traveled to the station aboard Boeings Starliner spacecraft in June for what was supposed to be a brief mission. After Starliner experienced technical issues, however, NASA decided send the spacecraft back to Earth without its crew. In late August, the agency announced the two astronauts will come home aboard a SpaceX Dragon in February 2025, turning their intended eight-day stay into eight months.trained for extended stays at the ISS.With the pair now 163 daysand countinginto their odyssey, some of the recent rumors about their health were centered around the negative effects of long-term residencies in space.The image that seems to have attracted the most attention is a picture of Williams and Wilmore making pizza aboard the space stations galley. Vinay Gupta, a pulmonologist and health policy analyst, told the Daily Mail that Williams face looked sunken and she appeared underweight. NASA astronauts make pizza aboard the International Space Station in a picture that triggered rumors about Williams' weight. NASA JohnsonThe following week, Williams attempted to reassure the public that she was in good health: I think theres some rumors around outside there that Im losing weight and stuff, she said in an interview from the station with the New England Sports Network. No, Im actually right at the same amount... as I was when I got up here, she continued, adding that she works out regularly, as all astronauts in space do, to prevent the decrease in muscle mass and bone destiny that results from long periods of time in microgravity.I could definitely tell that weightlifting, which is not something that I do all the time, has definitely changed me. My thighs are a little bit bigger, my butt is a little bit bigger, she also noted, per Space.coms Mike Wall.The next day, though, the New York Post cited an anonymous NASA insider, who maintained that both Williams and Wilmore are losing body mass, adding that Williams has been affected more than Wilmore.On Thursday, Polk once again refuted these allegations in several media interviews.NASA Astronaut Suni Williams Talks with New England Sports Network - Tuesday, November 12, 2024Watch on Ive known Suni 20 years, and Ill tell you, Suni looks the same to me, he tells the New York Times Kenneth Chang. Shes in incredible health right now.I hope that the chief medical officer of NASA is an informed and credible sourceIll put it that way, Polk says to Space.com, referring to himself.He adds that fluid shiftwhen weightlessness leads bodily fluids to flow toward the upper parts of the bodyalong with the daily aerobic and resistive exercises that astronauts do on the ISS can cause morphologic changes that occur that can perhaps change their appearance. Still, he reiterates that their weight has not changed, and their fitness is actually getting better.The speculation on Williams weight comes amid other questions regarding the health of three NASA astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut who were taken to a hospital after they returned to Earth from the ISS last month. One member of the crew was kept overnight, but for privacy reasons, NASA has not revealed the identity of the individual or released information on the nature of their medical issue.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Astronauts, Health, Media, NASA, Outer Space, Social Media, Space Travel, SpaceX

The postcard is stamped April 11, 1912, just a few days before theTitanicsank. Henry Aldridge & SonA historic postcard stamped April 11, 1912, is about to go to auction. On its back is a hand-scrawled message from British businessman Richard William Smith, expressing excitement about his imminent cruise to the United States. The front features an image of the boat set to take him there: the Titanic.It is an incredibly powerful and poignant message, Andrew Aldridge, managing director of the auction houseHenry Aldridge & Son, tellsBBC News Steve Silk. He had no idea of what was coming over the horizon approximately 80 hours later.Smiths missive was postmarked in Ireland, Titanics final stop before venturing out into the Atlantic Ocean. About three days after the postcard was sent, theWhite Star Line ship collided with an iceberg and sank about400 miles from Newfoundland, killing Smith and more than 1,500 other passengers. Have had a fine run around to Queenstown, wrote Smith in the note.Just leaving for the land of stars and stripes. Henry Aldridge & SonFor just the first day of the Titanics maiden voyageApril 10, on which it departed from Southampton, England, then stopped at Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, IrelandSmith was accompanied by a family friend named Emily Nicholls. She mailed the postcard for him after disembarking in Queenstown (now called Cobh), while Smith stayed onboard.Have had a fine run around to Queenstown, wrote Smith on the card, which was addressed to a woman named Olive Dakin in Norwich, England. Just leaving for the land of stars and stripes.As Aldridge tellsCNNs Lianne Kolirin, Smith was a tea broker who had various interests in the U.S. He sailed first class on the doomed ship.Most postcards written by Titanic passengers were either stamped with Queenstown or the ships own postmark, per BBC News. But Nicholls sent Smiths card from the city of Corkabout ten miles inland. Aldridge expects it will fetch between 6,000 and 10,000 at auction (roughly $7,600 to $12,600). The Titanicarriving in Queenstown (now called Cobh), Ireland Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsIt will be of interest to two different kinds of people, Aldridge tells BBC News. Titanic specialists, of course, but also stamp collectors who like postmarks. This one, dated Cork 3:45 p.m., April 11, 1912, is exceptionally rare.The postcard is just one lot in Henry Aldridge & Sons upcoming Titanic, White Star and Transport Memorabilia auction on November 16. Other items up for sale include archival photographs, a Titanic victimspocket watch and anotherpocket watch that three Titanic survivors gifted toArthur Henry Rostron. Rostron was the captain of RMSCarpathia, which arrived to rescue the Titanics passengers from the icy Atlantic several hours after the boat sank.The auction house stages two Titanic sales every year. At its April auction, a photograph depicting an iceberg, which may have been the iceberg that sunk the vessel, sold for 17,500 (about $22,000). However, some artifacts brought in much more: Agold pocket watch belonging to John Jacob Astor IV, the Titanics richest passenger, went for 1.175 million (roughly $1.4 million).The postcardinked in faded cursiveis one of the upcoming auctions more touching objects. As Aldridge tells CNN, This is one of the last things that Mr. Smith wrote.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Artifacts, Auctions, Death, England, History, Ireland, Letters, Ships, Shipwrecks, The Titanic

William Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickinson were among the well-known poets with works included in the new study. Leon Neal / AFP via Getty ImagesIf all the worlds a stage and all the men and women merely players, where does that leave non-human figures, like artificial intelligence chatbots? As it turns out, A.I. can hold its own against humanseven the Bard himselfwhen it comes to writing poetry.A.I. chatbots can imitate famous poets like William Shakespeare well enough to fool many human readers, according to a new paper published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports. In addition, many study participants actually preferred the chatbots poetry over the works of renowned writers.Researchers asked OpenAIs ChatGPT-3.5 to generate poems in the style of well-known authors, including Walt Whitman, Geoffrey Chaucer, T.S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath, Allen Ginsberg, Emily Dickinson and William Shakespeare.Then, they gathered 1,634 study participants and asked them each to read ten poemsfive written by a human poet, and five written by the chatbot in the style of that same human poet. The poet was randomly assigned to each participant.When scientists asked participants to identify which poems were fake and which were real, the participants guessed correctly around 46 percent of the timejust a little bit worse than if theyd flipped a coin instead. This finding wasnt necessarily a surprise, since ChatGPT-3.5 was likely trained on the works of the famous poets.Essentially, ChatGPT has displayed its skill as a quasi-plagiarist, says Keith Holyoak, a cognitive psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved with the study, to New Scientists Jeremy Hsu.In a second experiment, researchers asked a different set of 696 participants to read and rate poems on 14 qualities, ranging from rhythm to originality. They told one-third of the participants they were reading poems written by an A.I. chatbot and another third that they were reading works written by a human. For the final third of participants, the scientists didnt share anything about the poems authorship. In reality, participants in all three groups were given a mix of poems written by humans and by A.I.As expected based on past research, the participants who believed they were reading poems written by humans gave higher ratings than participants who believed they were reading A.I.-generated poemsregardless of what they were actually reading.But the team also uncovered a surprise: The participants who didnt know anything about the poems origins gave higher ratings, on average, to those written by the chatbot.Why do readers seem to prefer A.I.-generated poetry? Its not entirely clear, but the researchers best guess is that the A.I. poems may be more appealing because they are relatively straightforward and simple to comprehend.Because A.I.-generated poems cannot match the complexity of human-authored verse, they are better at unambiguously communicating an image, a mood, an emotion or a theme to non-expert readers of poetry, the researchers write in the paper.For example, they write, the chatbots Plath-style poem is clearly about sadness:The air is thick with tension,My mind a tangled mess.The weight of my emotionsIs heavy on my chest.The darkness creeps upon me,A suffocating cloak.The world outside is cruel and cold,And Im a fragile, broken yolk.My thoughts are spinning wildly,A cyclone in my brain.I try to grasp at something solid,But all is lost in vain.The voices in my head,They never cease to scream.And though I try to shut them out,They haunt me like a dream.So here I am, alone and lost,A ship without a sail.In this world of pain and sorrow,I am but a mere wail.Beyond the themes and emotions, ChatGPTs poems were also simpler in terms of their overall structure and composition.Emily Dickinson sometimes breaks the expected rhyme scheme on purpose, says study co-author Brian Porter, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh, to New Scientist. But the A.I.-generated poems generated in her style never did that once.Understanding poems written by humans requires deep, critical thinkingand thats a big part of poetrys appeal, the researchers write in the paper. But modern readers dont seem to want to do this labor, instead preferring texts that give them instant answers, as Andrew Dean, a literary scholar at Deakin University in Australia who was not involved with the study, writes in the Conversation.When readers say they prefer A.I. poetry, then, they would seem to be registering their frustration when faced with writing that does not yield to their attention, he adds.In some instances, participants might have misunderstood the complexity of human poetry as A.I. incoherence. In other words, they could have been so confused by the genuine, human-authored work that they convinced themselves it must be garbled chatbot nonsense.This theory seems to be supported by participants responses to T.S. Eliots The Boston Evening Transcript, reports the Washington Posts Carolyn Y. Johnson. The poem, a satire about the readers of a once-popular newspaper, was the work most frequently misidentified as A.I.-generated. After reading Eliots words, one participant even wrote, in all caps, IT DIDNT MAKE SENSE TO ME OR COME FROM SOMEONE THAT HAS FEELINGS.The studys findings seem to confirm many onlookers biggest fears about A.I., which is that theyll one day replace human artists and put them out of work. But Dorothea Lasky, the only living poet whose writings were included in the experiments, says its not necessarily a bad thing that readers enjoyed the A.I.-generated poems.Poetry will always be necessary, Lasky tells the Washington Post. If these people in the study read A.I. poems and liked that poem better than a human-generated poem, then that, to me, is beautiful. They had a good experience with a poem, and I dont care who wrote it. I feel there is room for all poetseven robot poets.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: American Writers, Artificial Intelligence, Arts, British Writers, Computers, Literature, New Research, Poetry, Sylvia Plath, Technology, Walt Whitman, William Shakespeare, Writers

A diver swims alongside the worlds largest coral colony, located in the Solomon Islands. Manu San Flix / National Geographic Pristine SeasResearchers have made a gargantuan discovery thats as large as two basketball courts, visible from space, at least 300 years old and brimming with marine life: Its the worlds largest coral, found in the southwest Pacific Ocean.Scientists and filmmakers spotted the massive coral in the Solomon Islands in October and announced the news this week. They had been filming near the island of Malaulalo for National Geographics Pristine Seas project, which aims to promote the creation of new marine protected areas. The team was working in partnership with the government of the Solomon Islands.Coral reefs are made up of many different, genetically distinct coral colonies. But the recently discovered organism is its own unique colony, consisting of millions of individual animals, called polyps, that are genetically identical. The polyps belong to a species called Pavona clavus.The newly identified coral is mostly made up of knobby protrusions in a drab brown colorbut it also has more vibrant areas of blues, reds and yellows. Scientists spotted fish, crabs, shrimp and other marine creatures using the coral for shelter and breeding.At about 112 feet wide, 105 feet long and 18 feet tall, the coral is enormous. Its so big that scientists initially thought it was a shipwreck. They also had to measure the organism in stages, because their underwater measuring tapes were not long enough to capture its colossal size in one go.The coral is longer than a blue whale, the largest animal on the planet. Its close to the size of a cathedral, says Manu San Flix, an underwater cinematographer and marine biologist who first spotted the coral, to CNNs Laura Paddison. Measuring the sprawling coral proved tricky. Manu San Flix / National Geographic Pristine SeasThe as-yet-unnamed coral takes the crown from the previous record-holder, an organism in American Samoa affectionately known as Big Momma thats around 21 feet tall.Based on its gargantuan size, researchers say the newly discovered coral is likely between 300 and 500 years old.When Napoleon was alive, this thing was here, San Flix tells Voxs Benji Jones. At first, the team thought the brown blob they spotted underwater might be a shipwreck. Manu San Flix / National Geographic Pristine SeasThe corals discovery was welcome news to the leaders of the Solomon Islands, who say this new claim to fame could help boost conservation efforts and funding, as well as attract the attention of tourists and scientists.We want the world to know that this is a special place and it needs to be protected, says Trevor Manemahaga, the Solomon Islands minister of environment, to BBC News Georgina Rannard.But, although it may be located in a remote, hard-to-reach part of the world, the coral is not safe from global warming and other human threats, says Enric Sala, a National Geographic explorer in residence and founder of the Pristine Seas initiative, in a statement. The coral is so big it can be seen from space. Steve Spence / National Geographic Pristine SeasThe sprawling corals discovery was officially announced one day after the International Union for Conservation of Nature revealed that 44 percent of the 892 known species of warm-water, reef-building coral are at risk of extinction. Coral face myriad threats, including rising ocean temperatures caused by climate change, overfishing, pollution and diseases.Weve known for decades that coral reefs are on the frontline of the global climate and biodiversity crises, and this new result only reconfirms this, says David Obura, a marine ecologist who co-chairs the IUCNs coral specialist group, in a statement. Without relevant decisions from those with the power to change this trajectory, we will see the further loss of reefs, and progressive disappearance of coral species at larger and larger scales.Still, the finding of this huge coral in the so-called Coral Triangle is reason for optimism. Its size and longevity suggest that some corals may be resilient to threats and adaptable to changes in their environment.The existence of large and old corals is a sign of hopethat its not too late to protect, conserve and restore the oceans while fighting against climate change, says David M. Baker, a marine scientist at the University of Hong Kong, to NBC News Peter Guo.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, Climate Change, Coral Reefs, Endangered Species, New Research, Oceans, Pacific Ocean, Water, wildlife, World Records

The Garden of Death,Hugo Simberg, 1896 Jenni Nurminen / Finnish National Gallery / Ateneum Art MuseumIn the late 19th century, artists were going goth. Works like Vincent van Goghs Head of a Skeleton With a Burning Cigarette (1886), Edvard MunchsBy the Deathbed (1893) and Hugo SimbergsThe Garden of Death (1896) exemplified a preoccupation with mortality.However, while their works were informed by the eras troubles, these painters didnt create such motifs in a vacuum. Now, an exhibition in Helsinki, Finland, examines how they looked to medieval art for inspiration.Gothic Modern: From Darkness to Light at theAteneum Art Museum places medieval and Renaissance art beside the work of modern masters, highlighting the Gothic themes that connect them. Per astatement from the museum, all the artworks on display deal with the big questions of life in a brutal manner and with dark humor.Dance on the Quay, Hugo Simberg, 1899 Aleks Talve / Finnish National Gallery / Ateneum Art MuseumArt history focuses on the flourishing scene in Paris, where Impressionism became Post-Impressionism, which led to Cubism, and then the birth of abstraction, as the New York Times Nina Siegal writes. But for many Northern European artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the center of culture was Berlin, which attracted artists interested in a darker, more spiritual interpretation of lifeoften inspired by prevailing themes from the Middle Ages.What comes from a medieval Gothic worldview, as this exhibition illuminates, is the passion of pain, the passion of yearning for the spiritual, for a greater meaning of the mysteries of a world, as exhibition co-curatorAnna-Maria von Bonsdorff, Ateneums director, tells theArt Newspapers Stephen Smith.Many renowned artists took inspiration from such morbidity. For example, van Goghs Head of a Skeleton, which depicts a skeleton with a cigarette between its teeth, lends a casualness to death. The Dutch artist painted it as part of an anatomy exercise, and some experts think he was just having a laugh, per the Times.By the Deathbed,Edvard Munch, 1896 Aleks Talve / Finnish National Gallery / Ateneum Art Museum, Sihtola collectionHowever, as von Bonsdorff tells the publication, the skull could also be a reference to the dance of death, the idea of deaths inevitability that was a frequent subject of European art during the late Middle Ages. Because it has a cigarette, and its grinning, it has this very modern attitude, von Bonsdorff tells the Times. Its death in a modern setting, death as the dandy.Munch, the Norwegian painter ofThe Scream, was influenced by German medieval art, while Austrian artistMarianne Stokes drew on medieval Gothic themes. These artists may have been responding to their periods industrialization, social turbulence and international tensions, with Europe inching toward World War I, as exhibition co-curatorJuliet Simpson tells the Times. According to the statement, the exhibition is unexpectedly relevant to modern crises: Curators began preparing it before the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. An installation view of Gothic Modern: From Darkness to Light," which is on display at the Ateneum Art Museum Hannu Pakarinen / Finnish National GalleryAs von Bonsdorff tells the Art Newspaper, young people today dont share the ideas of older generations of a fixed identity, belief in utopias, that the world is going to get better, or theres such a thing as heaven on earth. The modern artists featured in the exhibition were plagued with similar beliefsand they found meaning in past eras clearheaded focus on mortality.These types of images in Western art since the medieval period have served to remind the viewer of lifes brevity and of a painters skill in rendering that mournful dilemma, von Bonsdorff adds. We need rituals to guide us, to navigate the dark times, to make sense of livingnot with a view that tomorrow will always come, but in the power of the present.Gothic Modern: From Darkness to Light is on view at the Ateneum Art Museum in Helsinki through January 26, 2025.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Art, Art History, Artists, Arts, Death, Exhibitions, Exhibits, Finland, Gothic, Medieval Ages, Modern Art, Painters, Painting, Sculpture, Vincent Van Gogh, Visual Arts

In 1986, Voyager 2 took this image of Uranus during its flyby. NASA / JPL-CaltechIn 1986, when NASAs Voyager 2 flew by the mysterious Uranus, it gave scientists their first close-up peek into the solar systems seventh planet. The discoveries from that singular visit still provide much of astronomers modern understanding of the strange, ice giant world. But now, a new study reveals Uranus was experiencing a rare solar wind event at the time of the flyby, suggesting the understanding that came from the Voyager 2 visit may have been skewed.In a paper published on Monday in Nature Astronomy, researchers argue that if the spacecraft had arrived at Uranus just a few days earlier, it would have discovered something else.The spacecraft saw Uranus in conditions that only occur about 4 percent of the time, says Jamie Jasinski, a physicist at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory and lead author of the study, in a statement from NASA.Those unusual conditions have to do with Uranus magnetospherea planets protective magnetic bubble that shields it from the solar wind. That 1986 visit encountered an empty magnetosphere around Uranus, oddly devoid of plasma. Astronomers concluded the planet was different compared to others in the solar system, but the new findings suggest its magnetosphere was just being squashed by a solar wind event that sent a stream of plasma and charged particles toward the planet.After traveling some 1.8 billion miles to reach Uranus 38 years ago, Voyager 2 gathered its data on the planet in less than six hours, discovering ten new moons and two rings alongside the void magnetosphere. This James Webb Space Telescope image of Uranus, released last December, shows nine of the planet's moons, which are named after characters in the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope and often known as the "literary moons." NASA, ESA, CSA, STScIWhen Jasinski and his colleagues presented the new research this past summer, it was a surprise for Fran Bagenal, an astrophysicist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who worked with the Voyager plasma science team, reports the New York Times Jonathan OCallaghan.Why didnt we see this? Bagenal tells the outlet. I was kicking myself. It was completely out of the blue.Jasinski had always wondered about the results of the flyby, because it provided only a small peek into the planet, he told the Washington Posts Rachel Pannett in an email. Jasinski has experience with missions that orbited planets and observed changes over much longer periods of time, which led him to believe the conclusions about Uranus may have been flawed.The extreme type of measurements Voyager 2 took always made me wonder if we just caught Uranus at a very specific moment in time, he tells the Washington Post.For scientists, learning more about magnetospheres helps reveal how different planets function. Using the knowledge from the 1986 flyby, astronomers had concluded that the missing plasma around Uranus also meant its moons were inactive.But the new research shows that might not be the case. If the missing plasma was indeed due to solar windwhich would have compressed the planets magnetic bubble and driven plasma outit allows for the possibility that Uranus five major moons might indeed be geologically active.The solar wind event might also have affected the planets radiation belts, regions with lots of energetic and charged particles, by infusing them with even more electrons. This would explain why Voyager 2s observations showed Uranus radiation belts as some of the most intense in our solar system, second only to Jupiter. An artist's conception of Uranus' usual magnetosphere (left) compared to how it behaved during the Voyager 2 flyby (right). NASA / JPL-CaltechLinda Spilker, a planetary scientist at NASA who was not involved in the new study, remembers being glued to the images from the 1986 flyby with anticipation and excitement. The flyby was packed with surprises, and we were searching for an explanation of its unusual behavior. The magnetosphere Voyager 2 measured was only a snapshot in time, she says in the statement.NASA might soon expand its knowledge about Uranus in a missionto the planet, marked as a priority by scientists as part of the most recent Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey. They recommended that NASA put a spacecraft into orbit around the mysterious planet and release a probe into its atmosphere to better understand the solar systems origin and evolution.The Uranus system is one of the big blank spots that are left on our map, Francis Nimmo, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told Scientific Americans Shannon Hall last year.For now, this new work explains some of the apparent contradictions, from the Voyager 2 flyby, Spilker adds in the NASA statement, and it will change our view of Uranus once again.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Astronomy, Astrophysics, James Webb Space Telescope, NASA, New Research, Outer Space, Planets, Solar System, Sun, Uranus

The decorative coffin of Lady Chenet-aa, a high-status woman who died some 3,000 years ago Morgan Clark / The Field MuseumScientists at Chicagos Field Museum are studyingEgyptian mummies using a mobile CT scanner. Earlier this year, they spent four days carefully scanning 26 mummies in the museums collections. Theyre still analyzing the results, which are already shedding new light on the ancient burials mysteries.From an archeological perspective, it is incredibly rare that you get to investigate or view history from the perspective of a single individual, saysStacy Drake, the museums human remains collection manager, in astatement. This is a really great way for us to look at who these people werenot just the stuff that they made and the stories that we have concocted about them, but the actual individuals that were living at this time.The team also hopes to learn more about the mummification process, which todays historians dont fully understand, as J.P. Brown, the museums senior conservator, tells NBC5 News Charlie Wojciechowski.The researchers took thousands of scans of the mummies. By stacking the scans together, they were then able to create 3D images of each one without causing any damage. Experts scanned 26 mummies from the Field Museum's collections. Morgan Clark / The Field MuseumThis technique is a sharp contrast to how scientists once examined ancient mummies. As CNNs Ashley Strickland writes, it wasn't unusual for 19th-century researchers to remove wrappings off of bodies in order to see what was insideruining the mummys burial dressings in the process.In fact, a mummy known as Harwa, who died in his early- to mid-40s some 3,000 years ago, was handled so carelessly that he was briefly lost amidst airplane luggage. In 1939, the Field Museum sent Harwa to New York, where he was displayed at the New York Worlds Fair. However, on the way back home, the body was accidentally sent to San Francisco instead of Chicago.Its maybe not what we would consider ethical anymore, Drake tells CNN. One of the big things for these ancient Egyptian individuals is how you continue to live after death. And that is part of his story and his journey.Now, the CT scans are revealing new information about these individuals stories. For example, experts had long been stumped by the burial of Lady Chenet-aa, a high-status woman who lived during the 22nd Dynasty. Lady Chenet-aas body is inside a form-fitting coffin, which doesnt have visible seams on the sidesjust a tiny opening at her feet. Researchers couldnt figure out how the body had been placed inside.The CT scans revealed a laced seam at the back of the coffin. According to the museum, the ancient Egyptians may have molded the funerary box around Chenet-aas body while she was in an upright position before closing the seam. Additionally, painted supplementary eyes were placed in her eye sockets so that she would maintain her vision in the afterlife. Field Museum researchers analyze composite scans of a mummified child. Bella Koscal / The Field MuseumThe ancient Egyptians conception of the afterlife was similar to our ideas about retirement savings, as Brown says in the statement. The additions are very literal. If you want eyes, then there needs to be physical eyes, or at least some physical allusion to eyes.The scans are also revealing more about Harwa, who was once a doorkeeper of an Egyptian granary. He appears to have lived a comfortable life, as his spine didnt show any signs of problems that may have developed during physical labor. He also had well-kept teeth, suggesting that he had access to high-quality food.The research will continue throughout 2025. Drake hopes the project will help change museumgoers perceptions about mummies, which are often informed by popular culture."These are people. They lived lives. Had names, Drake tells FOX 32 News Dane Placko. We are using these scans to learn more about these individuals and the experiences they may have had.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Ancient Civilizations, Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, Chicago, Death, Egypt, History, Innovations, Mummies, Museums, New Research, Rituals and Traditions, Technology

How to See the Stunning Leonid Meteor Shower This WeekendThough the nearly full moon will likely outshine some of these speedy meteors, you may still be able to catch a glimpse of bright fireballs and low Earth-grazers The Leonids sometimes produce fireballs, or unusually bright streaks of light that linger in the night sky. NASA / Getty ImagesLooking for something to do this weekend? Stay up lateand look upfor a chance to see the annual Leonid meteor shower.This year, the Leonids are active from November 3 to December 2, according to the American Meteor Society. The shooting stars are expected to reach their peak this weekend, from the night of November 16 into the early morning hours of November 17 and from late November 17 until dawn on November 18.Unfortunately, the meteors might be a bit tricky to spot this time around. The moon will be roughly 98 percent full the night the Leonids peak (in its waning gibbous phase), meaning that even if you head somewhere with very little light pollution, you wont be able to escape the bright moonlight. Still, you might get lucky and catch a glimpse of a dazzling fireball.Heres what to know about the dazzling and speedy Leonids.Where the meteors come fromThe Leonidslike all meteor showersoccur when Earth passes through a natural debris trail in space. These bits of dust, rock and ice left behind by a comet or asteroid enter Earths atmosphere, where they burn up and create streaks of light that are sometimes visible from the ground. These streaks are meteors, also known as shooting stars.The comet responsible for producing the Leonids is called 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. The Leonids parent comet, which measures 2.24 miles in diameter, makes a trip around the sun every 33 years. It was discovered independently by two men: Ernst Tempel in 1865 and Horace Tuttle in 1866. Its next foray into our solar system will come in 2031.The Leonids are the worlds fastest annual meteor shower, traveling up to 158,400 miles per hour. Because Earth and 55P/Tempel-Tuttle are traveling in nearly opposite directions, the meteors collide head-on with the planets atmosphere, according to the European Space Agency. At their peak, under prime conditions, the Leonids produce about 15 meteors per hour.The Leonid Meteor Shower: This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher 11/11/2024Watch on A history of meteor stormsThis year, the Leonids are expected to be a regular meteor shower. But every 33 years or so, they produce whats known as a meteor storm, or a much more intense version of a meteor shower. During a meteor storm, at least 1,000 meteors pass through Earths atmosphere in an hour, NASA writes. These dazzling storms result from Earth crossing an ultra-dense cloud of debris, which typically happens when 55P/Tempel-Tuttle is at or near its closest point to the sun, known as its perihelion.In November 1833, stargazers witnessed one of the Leonids meteor storms, with between 50,000 and 150,000 meteors visible per hour. Earth-bound observers were simultaneously amazed and befuddled by the unusual celestial show, as Eli Wizevich reports for Smithsonian magazine.In the ensuing days, a meteor craze swept across the nation, Wizevich writes. Americans were talking about the night the stars fell from the heavens, trying to find meaning, inspiration or prophecy in the spectacle. Some speculated that the meteor shower was a telltale sign of a hard winter to come or that it was an omen of evil.The last time the Leonids produced a meteor storm was in 2002so the next one wouldnt typically be expected to occur until around 2035. But the American Meteor Society says the wait could be even longer. Unfortunately, it appears that the Earth will not encounter any dense clouds of debris until 2099, according to the societys website.In the meantime, though, Earth-bound viewers of the Leonids should keep an eye out for two special kinds of meteors, called fireballs and Earth-grazers, according to NASA. Fireballs, which are produced by larger pieces of debris, are unusually bright, colorful streaks that last longer than typical meteors. Earth-grazers, meanwhile, appear to shoot across the sky near the horizon and produce long, colorful tails.Tips for viewing the Leonid showerThe Leonids get their name from Leo, the vast and well-known lion constellation. The meteors appear to originate from the part of the sky where Leo lies, so astronomers call the constellation the radiant. However, the Leonids dont actually come from Leothey just look like they do from here on Earth.During the Leonids peak this weekend, you might be tempted to find Leo and stare in its direction. But experts recommend taking a wider view of the night sky instead. If you bring a friend or two, you can each gaze in different directions, then call out to each other when you spot a shooting star.The Leonids will be competing with the moon this year. But, to set yourself up for the best chances of success, you should still head to a dark place thats far away from artificial lights. Refrain from looking at your phone and other forms of light for 20 to 30 minutes to give your eyes a chance to adjust to the darkness. Bring a blanket or a comfortable chair, then lean back and relaxyou dont need binoculars, a telescope or any other special equipment to see meteors.Another tip for seeing the Leonids in this years less-than-ideal viewing conditions? Find a place where some or all of the moonlight is blocked outknown as a moon shadow. EarthSky recommends a plateau next to tall mountains or a field bordered by tall trees. If these are not options, find a building and sit in its shadow.Ensconced within a moon shadow, and far from the glow of city lights, the night suddenly darkens and can help you see more meteors, according to EarthSky. You cant run from the moon, but you can sure hide from it.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Astronomers, Astronomy, Comets, Meteors, Outer Space, Sky Watching Guide

First-edition Jane Austen novels in a special display case at her former home Jane Austen's HouseFirst-edition copies of Jane Austens completed novels are on display in the home where the beloved author spent years writing and revising. The rare books are part of a new permanent exhibition, Jane Austen and the Art of Writing, at her familys formercottage in Chawton, a village located some 50 miles from London.Austen lived in the house during the last eight years of her lifebetween 1809 and 1817with her mother and sister Cassandra. She wrote or revised all six of her completed novels there:Sense and Sensibility,Pride and Prejudice,Mansfield Park,Emma,Northanger AbbeyPersuasion.This is the first time that all six first-edition novels will be on display together at Jane Austens House, which is now a museum. They include a copy of Emma that Austens brother Frank owned, copies of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion from her brother Edward, and a copy of Sense and Sensibility with the publishers original binding.The new exhibition presents them as real treasuresalmost as relics of Jane Austens life in this house, Sophie Reynolds, the head of collections, interpretation and engagement at the museum, tells theGuardians Steven Morris. Some of these are copies that Austen would have handled, including those owned by her brothers Frank and Edward. It is very special to see them all together like this.The novels appear on display in a 12-sided case built for the new installation, a nod to Austens small 12-sided wooden table she often worked at. The rare books are part of the museums preparations for the beloved authors 250th birthday celebrations in December 2025. Jane Austen's House in Chawton is showcasing first-edition copies of her celebrated novelsincluding some that were once owned by her siblings. Dan Kitwood / Getty ImagesLizzie Dunford, director of the museum, is excited for visitors to have the unique opportunity to be quite literally surrounded by the books and objects that influenced Austen, per the Farnham Heralds Paul Coates.The show also features other objects from Austens life that are connected to her writing. For example, topaz crosses that Jane and Cassandra received from their brother Charles likely inspired the amber cross that Fanny Price receives from her brother William in Mansfield Park. Charles, like William, was a sailor who would often bring back trinkets from his travels, writes Artnets Tim Brinkhof.Additionally, some of Austens letters are on view at the exhibition, which examines how her correspondence and love of letter-writing informed her fiction. Visitors will also see a film about The Watsons, one of Austens unfinished novels, and how the original manuscript sheds light on her writing process.This exhibition is a deep dive into Jane Austens creative process, says Reynolds, per the Farnham Herald. We hope that it will unlock a new way for our visitors to understand Jane Austen as a dedicated, driven and professional writer, and to explore how her life and living arrangements affected her writing in the very house in which she lived and wrote.Jane Austen and the Art of Writing is now on view at Jane Austens House in Chawton, England.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Arts, Books, British Writers, England, Exhibitions, Exhibits, Fiction, Jane Austen, Museums, Writers

An artist's rendering of the X-37B conducting an aerobraking maneuver using the drag of Earth's atmosphere, with the bottom of the craft glowing red as it heats up. Boeing SpaceRecently, the United States Space Force surprised space travel enthusiasts and professionals alike by revealing details about its mysterious spaceplanes seventh mission. In a statement released on October 10, the agency announced that its Boeing-made X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle would conduct a series of unprecedented aerobraking maneuvers to change its orbital path around Earth. This month, Boeing Space said on social media that the procedure had begun.This first-of-a kind maneuver from the X-37B is an incredibly important milestone for the United States Space Force as we seek to expand our aptitude and ability to perform in this challenging domain, B. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force, said in the statement.The news is a rare offering of information from the Space Force and Boeing, which are incredibly secretive about the X-37Bs activities. The craftlaunchedon its first mission in 2010, but few details have been revealed about its highly classified purpose in space.The newly described aerobraking maneuver allows the X-37B spaceplane to change its orbit by using the Earths atmospheric dragthe friction caused by molecules in the atmosphere. Normally, spacecrafts have to fire their thrusters to achieve a shift in orbit, which uses up propellant and thus can only be done a limited number of times, per Space.coms Brett Tingley.When we aerobrake, we utilize atmospheric drag to effectively step down our apogeethe farthest point from Earth in the orbitone pass at a time, until we get to the orbital regime that we want to be in, John Ealy, a Boeing engineer, says in a video released by the company. When we do this, we save enormous amounts of propellant, and thats really why aerobraking is important.Because of the way it conserves fuel, aerobraking could allow missions to last significantly longer, per Newsweeks Tom Howarth.What is Aerobraking? | X-37B Mid-Mission DemonstrationWatch on X-37B will change its orbit (or perhaps it already has) in order to dispose of service module components, dropping them off to burn up in the Earths atmosphere.Besides this novel maneuver, the public knows very little about X-37B. It is an unmanned, remotely controlled spaceplane Boeing developed for the U.S. Department of Defense. More broadly, spaceplanes are hybrids between airplanes and spacecraft that can orbit the planet like satellites but also land back on Earth like passenger planes, per Gizmodos Passant Rabie. In essence, this ability makes them reusable.X-37B was launched into space via SpaceXs Falcon Heavy rocket for its seventh mission (OTV-7) in December 2023. Since then, it has been orbiting Earth in an extremely elliptical path with a perigee (the closest point of an orbit) of 620 miles and an apogee of more than 22,210 miles, per Live Sciences Rory Bathgatethough it has been spotted as close as 185 miles above Earth.But exactly what its doing on that orbit is unclear. Since December 28, 2023, the United States Space Force, supported by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, has conducted radiation effect experiments and has been testing Space Domain Awareness technologies in a Highly Elliptical Orbit, is all the agency said of the spaceplanes overall mission in the recent statement. The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle when it concluded its sixth successful mission. U.S. Space Force / Staff Sgt. Adam Shanks, Public domainWe do know, however, that past missions have served to study the effect of long-duration space exposure, including space radiation, on seeds.Space is a vast and unforgiving environment where testing technologies is critical to the success of future endeavors, Michelle Parker, vice president of Boeings Space Mission Systems, said in another statement last month. There is no other space platform as capable, flexible and maneuverable as the X-37B, and its next demonstration will be another proof point that this test vehicle sets the pace of innovation.Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in a statement that the craft is conducting national security missions in space. Some suspect this to include military surveillance. Many are thus wondering what might have prompted the agency to release information about the X-37Bs latest maneuver.Disclosing this aerobraking maneuver could be the Space Forces way of showing the world what the spaceplane is capable of, Vivienne Machi writes for Aviation Week, with an intended audience of anyone from allies and partners, adversaries, lawmakers, industry, potential recruits, and perhaps even the service itself.Machi adds that two other reasons for the revelation could include loosening up some of the agencys historic and perhaps unnecessary security classification barriers, and/or wanting to prompt China and Russia to also step up communication about space maneuvers.Once the aerobraking has been completedand perhaps it already hasthe spaceplane will return to its secretive objectives.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Government, Innovations, Military, Outer Space, Planes, Space Travel

Mary, the 54-year-old Asian elephant at the Berlin Zoo, loves using a hose to rinse off. Urban et al., Current Biology, 2024Elephants are highly intelligent, social creatures capable of peeling bananas, burying and mourning their dead, solving problems and greeting their companions.Now, scientists have added another skill to this list: using hoses to keep themselves cleanand, possibly, to play pranks on each other. Researchers describe these behaviors in a new paper published last week in the journal Current Biology.I am convinced that elephantsand possibly lots of animalsdo all sorts of interesting things that we often miss, or dismiss as one-offs or anecdotes, says Lucy Bates, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Portsmouth in England who was not involved with the research, to Sciences Sara Reardon.A 54-year-old Asian elephant named Mary at the Berlin Zoo surprised researchers with her adeptness at not only using the hose, but also adjusting her use to serve different purposes.Mary, who was born in the wild and had lived at other zoos, cleverly used her trunk to manipulate a hose to shower herself with water. She adopted various techniques to shower different parts of her body, including a lasso-like motion that allowed her to reach her back. Mary also changed her grip on the hose to reach various body parts, and she would raise one of her back legs so she could shower it.Researchers also presented Mary with hoses of different sizes to observe her reactions. She preferred the zoos standard-sized hose over smaller or larger ones, probably because the other sizes were more difficult to grab and move with her trunk.Mary is the queen of showering, says study co-author Michael Brecht, a computational neuroscientist at Humboldt University of Berlin, in a statement.Watch this elephant turn a hose into a sophisticated showering toolWatch on But another Asian elephant, 12-year-old Anchali, appeared to understand how to use the hose to play tricks on Mary. When Mary was showering herself, Anchali would often squeeze, clamp and stand on the hose, thus interrupting the water flow.Researchers suggest Anchalis behaviors could have been purposeful attempts to sabotage Marys shower time, they write in the paper. Over time, she got better at kinking the hoseand she did it more often. The younger elephant alsodeveloped a new behavior, which the team calls a trunk stand, that involves leaning into her trunk to flatten the hose.Anchali may have just been messing around playfully. But its also possible she was acting out of spite, because Mary periodically acted aggressively toward Anchali, per the researchers.Its something we would really like to knowdoes she think its funny? Brecht tells the Guardians Nicola Davis. I think its very funny, but we really dont know. Maybe shes just trying to be mean.Researchers couldnt prove Anchalis antics were vengefulin another experiment, they found that she most often interacted with the hose closest to her, rather than the one Mary was using. But they note its not clear whether Anchali could tell which hose went to Mary. Mary used the hose in different ways to shower various parts of her body, while Anchali shut off the water by clamping the hose. Urban et al., Current Biology, 2024The captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) also exhibited highly lateralized behaviors when handling the hoses, meaning they showered one side of their bodies more frequently than the other. These preferences seemed to align with the elephants trunkedness, or whether they were right-trunked or left-trunked (similar to right-handedness and left-handedness in humans). For instance, Mary is left-trunked and spent more time using the hose to shower the left side of her body than the right side.Marys elegant and elaborate use of the hose for showering isnt all that surprising, given her physiology, the researchers write in the paper. They suspect that she might have a somewhat intuitive understanding for a hose, because its super similar to the trunk, says study co-author Lena Kaufmann, also a neuroscientist at Humboldt University of Berlin, to the New York Times Emily Anthes.Still, Marys behavior is yet another example of non-human animals using tools, along with cockatoos, macaques, crows, dolphins and others. Scientists have deemed hoses complex tools because of their length and flexibility, and because of the dynamics of flowing water.I had not thought about hoses as tools much before, but what came out from [this research] is that elephants have an exquisite understanding of these tools, Brecht says in the statement.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, Cognition, Elephants, Neuroscience, New Research, Tools, wildlife, Zoology

A Rare Otherworldly Sculpture by Surrealist Artist Leonora Carrington Is Going to AuctionThe 1951 artwork, La Grande Dame (The Cat Woman), stands over six feet tall and features paintings of hybrid creatures and lush dreamscapesLa Grande Dame (The Cat Woman)by Leonora Carrington on display at Sotheby's in New York City John Lamparski / Getty ImagesAs Surrealism celebrates its100th birthday, a rare sculpture by renowned Surrealist Leonora Carrington is going up for auction.On November 18, Sothebys will sellLa Grande Dame (The Cat Woman), which the British-Mexican artist created in 1951. The piece is expected to sell for between $5 million and $7 million.The otherworldly sculpture is made of carved and polychrome wood, which Carrington painted with depictions of hybrid creatures and lush dreamscapes that evoke a lasting sense of awe, per Sothebys. At more than six feet tall, La Grande Dame is a poised, puzzling figure with elongated features and an indecipherable expression spread across its spade-shaped head, asArtnets Richard Whiddington writes. The piece is more than six feet tall. Sotheby'sExperts have raised concerns about the authenticity of some of the sculptures attributed to Carrington, according to the Art Newspapers Hannah McGivern. However, La Grande Dame isnt one of them. Sothebys says that Harold Gabriel Weisz Carrington, the artists eldest son and president of the Fundacin Leonora Carrington, has confirmed the works authenticity.Museums, as well as private collectors, are expected to bid on the sculpture. Its being sold by a distinguished private American collection, per Sothebys. The piece was previously owned by Edward James, a British patron of the Surrealist movement. This is the first time its come up for public auction in three decades.This is her greatest sculpture, Julian Dawes, Sothebys senior vice president and head of Impressionist and modern art for the Americas, tellsARTnews Karen K. Ho.Dawes adds that her work is very relevant across the world. Carrington was a British artist working in Mexico using Egyptian and Celtic and pre-Columbian iconography, creating something thats wholly fantastical and original, he says. I wouldnt be surprised if we see a lot of institutional activity.Another piece by Carrington, a 1945 painting called Les Distractions de Dagobert, sold for a record $28.5 million earlier this year. Experts say demand for Carringtons work has surged as the art world has shifted its focus to the often-overlookedwomen of the Surrealist movement. The sculpture isis made of carved and polychrome wood. Sotheby'sBorn to a wealthy family in England in 1917, Carrington was a rebellious child who was expelled from at least two convent schools. When she was 14, her parents sent her to an Italian boarding school, where she took up painting.She later moved to London, then Paris, and began participating in the Surrealist movement in the late 1930s. Carrington relocated to Mexico in 1942, became a naturalized Mexican citizen and spent the rest of her life in the country. Shedied in 2011 at age 94.Carrington was primarily a painter, but she was also a writer and sculptor. Her work often featured goddesses, animals, human-animal hybrids, mythological creatures and otherworldly scenes. However, as with the work of other Surrealists, Carringtons art is difficult to characterizeand she liked it that way.Throughout her life, she refused to explain her work and she disliked any attempt to impose the order of language onto her visuals, wroteArtsys Siobhan Leddy in 2019. In seeing beyond the visible world, beyond the rational or comprehensible, Carrington leaves us only with abstract terms like magic.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Art, Artists, Arts, Auctions, Mexico, Painters, Sculpture, Surrealism, Visual Arts, Writers

Researchers performed DNA testing on the bones highlighted in this image. Paumen, Wargnies and Demory / Fdration Wallonie-Bruxelles / Veselka et al.Back in the 1970s, when archaeologists excavated a skeleton from an ancient graveyard in Belgium, they thought they had found a typical Roman burial. But during a recent reexamination of the bones, researchers noticed peculiarities. For instance, the skeletons spine appeared to be made of both adolescent and adult vertebrae.I started thinking, okay, something really weird is going on, researcherBarbara Veselka, an archaeologist at theFree University of Brussels, tellsNew Scientists Christa Lest-Lasserre.Veselkas team used radiocarbon dating to analyze the individual bones; they also sequenced ancient DNA found in them. They found that the skeleton is made of bones from at least eight unrelated men and women, according to a recent study published in the journal Antiquity. The skeleton contained these five adult foot bones and two adolescent toe bones. Veselka et al.The skeleton was found in the town of Pommerul, near Belgiums border with France. Placed in the fetal position, it was the only intact body in a graveyard containing 76 cremation burials. Because of a bone pin found near the head, researchers initially concluded the burial was Roman, dating to the second or third century C.E., when the Roman Empire covered theGallic lands of present-day France and Belgium.The skeletons bones are actually much older, with the earliest contributor dying nearly 4,445 years ago, per New Scientist. The skeleton contains bones from multiple generations in the lateNeolithic period, who lived thousands of years before the Romansconquered Gaul.Still, the skeleton isnt completely out of place in the Roman cemetery. According to genetic analysis, its skull belongs to a Roman woman of the third or fourth century C.E., whose DNA matches similarly-aged Roman remains in a nearby cemeteryprobably siblings.How did this composite Neolithic skeleton end up with a Roman skull more than 2,000 years later? As the researchers write, Gallo-Roman groups may have disturbed the old burial while interring their own dead. If it was headless, the Romans might have completed it by adding a skull of their own. If not, maybe they replaced the skull. Or maybe they created the entire amalgamated skeleton themselves.Whether the assembly of the bones occurred in the late Neolithic or in the Roman period, the presence of the individual was clearly intentional, write the researchers. The bones were selected, a fitting location chosen and the elements arranged carefully to mimic the correct anatomical order.Whoever composed the burial understood enough about the human skeletal structure to create a convincing puzzle. As Veselka tells New Scientist, They knew what they were doing, for sure.As Jane Holmstrom, a bioarchaeologist at Macalester College who wasnt involved in the research, tellsLive Sciences Kristina Killgrove, this fascinating and complex study may help illuminate Neolithic burial customs. Veselka notes that Pommerul was located near a riveran enduring mark of geographic and spiritual importance. Various groups over time may have wanted to control it.The composite skeleton provides an interesting possibility of land-claiming through burial during the Neolithic, Holmstrom adds, with family groups within the clan asserting claim together, with the Romans furthering the land claim to assert their authority over Gaul.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Chimpanzees Could Never Randomly Type the Complete Works of Shakespeare, Study FindsWhile testing the infinite monkey theorem, mathematicians found that the odds of a chimpanzee typing even a short phrase like I chimp, therefore I am before the death of the universe are 1 in 10 million billion billion The universe will die before chimpanzees have a chance to type the complete works of Shakespeare, researchers found. Found Image Holdings / Corbis via Getty ImagesCould a chimpanzee ever randomly type the complete works of Shakespeare? According to a pair of researchers in Australia, the answer is no.Mathematicians Stephen Woodcock and Jay Falletta set out to test the infinite monkey theorem, a famous thought experiment that suggests that an unlikely event can occur, given an infinite amount of time and resources, because of random chance.More specifically, the theorem states that if one monkey had an infinite amount of time with a keyboard (or if there were an infinite number of monkeys), they would eventually type any given textincluding Shakespeares works.Mathematically, the theorem is correct. But, practically, its misleading given the constraints of our finite universe, the researchers conclude in a new study published in the journalFranklin Open.Yes, it is true that given infinite resources, any text of any length would inevitably be produced eventually, Woodcock tellsCNNs Amarachi Orie. While true, this also has no relevance to our own universe, as reaching infinity in resources is not something [that] can ever happen.The theorems origins are somewhat mysterious, but its usually attributed to French mathematician mile Borel or English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley. The concept may even have roots in AristotlesMetaphysics.But Woodcock and Fallettaboth from Australias University of Technology Sydneywanted to put the theorem to the test. To do that, they ran a series of calculations using realistic but generous figures.For example, they assumed that the worlds current population of chimpanzeesaround 200,000would remain constant for the duration of the universe. They also factored in the heat death of the universe, which they assumed would take place in around a googol of years (a large figure written as the number 1, followed by 100 zeros).They decided to focus on chimpanzees, which they assumed could type one key per second on a keyboard with 30 keys. They also used the animals average lifespan of around 30 years.Even if all the chimpanzees in the world typed for the entire lifespan of the universe, they would almost certainly never reproduce Shakespeares complete works, according to the researchers calculations.Beyond that, a single chimpanzee has just a 5 percent chance of randomly typing the word bananas within its lifetime, they found. The odds of a chimpanzee typing a short phrase like I chimp, therefore I am are 1 in 10 million billion billion.Put together, all of Shakespeares sonnets, plays and poems add up to nearly 885,000 wordsand not one of them is bananas.We did the [math] from one monkey to the scale of infinity monkeys and we can say categorically its not going to happen, Woodcock tellsNew Scientists James Woodford. If every atom in the universe was a universe in itself, it still wouldnt happen.Even when the researchers played with the variablessuch as by increasing the number of chimps, or boosting their typing speedthey determined that chimpanzee labor will never be a viable tool for developing written works of anything beyond the trivial, they write in the paper.Though the researchers calculations are sound, other mathematicians questioned the need for such a study in the first place.The theorem certainly didnt need debunking, saysMartin Hairer, a mathematician at Imperial College London who was not involved with the research, toNBC News David Hodari. Its something everyone has known forever. The universe could die and be reborn millions and millions of times and it still wouldnt happen.This isnt the first time mathematicians have tried to test the infinite monkey theorem. About two decades ago, researchers in Englandgave a computer to six Sulawesi crested macaques living in captivity at a zoo. After nearly two months, the animals produced just five pages of textand they had mostly typed the letter s.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Arts, Literature, Mathematics, Monkeys, New Research, universe, William Shakespeare

Forty-Three Monkeys Are on the Loose in South Carolina After Escaping a Research Facility When a Door Was Left UnsecuredOnce the first primate made a break, the 42 others followed suit in a simple case of monkey-see, monkey-doOlatunji Osho-WilliamsStaff ContributorNovember 8, 2024 Officials are trying to recapture more than 40 monkeys that escaped from a research facility in Yemassee, South Carolina. Yemassee Police Department via FacebookA troop of 43 monkeys is on the lam in South Carolinas lowcountry after escaping from a research facility on Wednesday night.The primates made a break for it when anIts really like follow-the-leader. You see one go and the others go, Greg Westergaard, CEO of Alpha Genesis, tells Stephen Smith of CBS News. It was a group of 50, and seven stayed behind, and 43 bolted out the door.Unlike the mighty chimpanzee Caesar, who escapes from captivity in the Planet of the ApesWere not talking about Caesar, Matthew Garnes, Yemassee town administrator, tells Michael DeWitt ofBluffton Today. But if you spot any primates, don't approach or try to interact with them or feed them, call 911.Police working with Alpha Genesis have set up thermal imaging cameras and traps to re-capture the primates, telling the public in a statement on Thursday that they have eyes on the monkeys, and officials "are working to entice them with food."A Friday afternoon update to the statement, posted by the Yemassee Police Department on Facebook, says the simians are playfully exploring the perimeter fence in the wooded area surrounding the facility, cooing to their primate pals in captivity. This behavior suggests the escapees are calm, which is a positive indication, per the police department.Still, the monkeys goofy antics are making it tough for officials to recapture them. Theyre jumping down and taking the food and then jumping back up on the fence and the tree line, Westergaard tells CBS News. Theyre watching us the same way were watching them. Its kind of like a playground situation here.Officials note the escaped monkeys do not pose a public health riskthey had not been used for testing due to their age, which also makes them too young to carry diseases.Alpha Genesis, which first opened in 2003, breeds monkeys for research at government, university and industry facilities, often for medical purposes. Rhesus macaques physiological closeness to humans has long made them subjects of choice for human and animal health researchers, writes the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center.Between two sites in South Carolinas Beaufort and Hampton counties, Alpha Genesis houses approximately 5,000 monkeys, including marmosets, cynomolgus and rhesus macaques, African Greens and several New World species, reportsBluffton Today.But this isnt the first time monkeys have broken free in Yemassee.In 2014, 26 monkeys escaped from the Alpha Genesis facility and were recaptured within 48 hours. Just two years later, 19 escaped and were returned within six hours. These escapes and other issuesincluding a group of monkeys killing another after it was put with the wrong social groupsparked a $12,600 fine on Alpha Genesis from the United States Department of Agriculture in 2018.Alpha Genesis won a federal contract in 2023 to run a colony of 3,500 monkeys on Morgan Island off the coast of South Carolina, which locals call Monkey Island.The primates on Morgan Island were introduced in the 1970s for biomedical research in local laboratories. Passing boaters can often spot monkeys lounging on the shore and scampering up the islands pines, as Tony Bartelme and Shamira McCray of South Carolinas Post & Courier wrote last year.The escaped monkeys used to live on Morgan Island but were transferred to the Yemassee facility to acclimate to humans, reports CBS News.Westergaard tells the publication that recovering the fugitive primates will be a long process. In the meantime, local police advised residents in the area to keep their doors and windows secured to prevent the animals from entering homes.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, Medicine, Monkeys, Primates, Trending Today

Lake Como has become a popular vacation destination in Italy's northern Lombardy region. Anadolu / ContributorTravelers often fill their suitcases with souvenirs like refrigerator magnets, Christmas ornaments, keychains and postcardslittle trinkets to remind them of their vacation. Now, those visiting the Italian lakeside town of Como have another, slightly less conventional item to bring home: a sealed can of Lake Como air.ItalyComunica, a communications company, is selling 13.5-ounce cans of pure air from the most beautiful lake in the world for roughly $11 (9.90) each. The canswhich are marketed as luxurious souvenirs on theproduct websitehave a dark blue label with an illustration of a boat cruising through the water.Open it whenever you need a moment of escape, tranquility or simply beauty, instructs the website. Only those who visit Lake Como can want to buy our souvenir; memories are not bought but lived.The man behind Lake Como Air is Davide Abagnale, a marketing specialist who initially started selling Lake Como posters.The canned air is not a product; its a tangible memory that you carry in your heart, Abagnale tellsCNNs Issy Ronald and Barbie Latza Nadeau. He adds that, once travelers open the cans, they can repurpose them to hold pens and pencils.Alessandro Rapinese, the mayor of Como, tells CNN that he would rather vacationers buy silk scarves, which the region is known for, or other souvenirs. However, he adds: If someone wants to take some of their air home, thats fine as long as they also take beautiful memories of this area.Lake Como, or Lago di Como in Italian, is a large body of water in Italys northern Lombardy region. It sits at the base of the Alps, not far from the border with Switzerland and about 50 miles north of Milan. Lake Comoand the villages and towns that surround ithas become a popular vacation destination. Celebrities like George Clooney own second homes in the region, and movies like Casino Royale (2006) and Oceans Twelve (2004) have been filmed there.This is far from the first time canned air has been marketed to tourists. Savvy entrepreneurs have been selling similar products for decades. After World War II, an Italian businessman named Gennaro Ciaravolo began recycling empty food cans left behind by American troops, perNBC News Hannah Peart. He claimed to fill the cans with air from Naples, and sold them as Aria di Napoli.Since 2014, the Canadian company Vitality Air has sold canisters full of fresh air from the Rocky Mountains. Customers can even choose whether they want air from Lake Louise or from Banff, among other products. In 2019, the Connecticut-based company Boost Oxygen appeared on the reality TV show Shark Tank and scored a$1 million loan from investor Kevin OLeary.In 2020, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the relocation website My Baggage began sellingbottles of air from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for around $33 (25). Topped with cork stoppers, the bottles were meant to give homesick expats and travelers a brief whiff of home. Canned air from Iceland isalso available.In Colorado, mountain towns and other high-elevation destinations, oxygen in a can is sometimes marketed as an antidote to altitude sickness (though thereslittle scientific evidence to support that claim). Though taking a few puffs of oxygen likely wont hurt you, any benefits you get from canned air can probably be attributed to the placebo effect, experts say.It sounds nice and natural to be just getting extra oxygen, but I dont think the science supports it, Lindsay Forbes, a physician and expert in pulmonary sciences and critical care medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, tells Debra Melani anarticle posted on the universitys website. Theres very real evidence that if you think something is going to help you, that it may in fact make you feel better.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Business, Italy, Italy Travel, Marketing, Tourism, Travel, Trending Today, Water

Surfer Spots an Emperor Penguin on a Beach in Australia, Thousands of Miles From Its Antarctic HomeIts not clear how the juvenile male ended up so far north, but experts suggest he was motivated by his appetite The penguin was malnourished after swimming thousands of miles from Antarctica. Miles Brotherson / DBCAEmperor penguins are renowned cold-weather specialists that can survive blustery winds and temperatures of around minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit during the Antarctic winter.So, what was one doing on a balmy beach in Australia last week?Wildlife biologists are still scratching their heads after an emperor penguin showed up on Ocean Beach in Denmark, Western Australia, on November 1. The bird was about 2,100 miles from homeand much farther north than the species is typically found.Aaron Fowler did a double take when he saw the out-of-place creature emerging from the waves on that Friday afternoon. He was out for a surf on Ocean Beach, which is located at the far southwestern tip of the continent.There was this big bird in the water, and we thought it was another sea bird, but then it kept coming closer to the shoreand it was way too bigand it just stood up and waddled right over to us, he tells the Albany Advertisers Georgia Campion.The penguin did not seem to be afraid of the humans on the beach. Fowlers guess is that the bird might have thought we were penguins because of our wet suits. The penguin is a juvenile male who may have been following a current in search of food. DBCAAs he came out of the water he went to do a tummy slide, like I guess hes used to on the ice, and he just did a kind of faceplant in the sand and shook all the sand off and looked a bit shocked, Fowler adds to the Albany Advertiser. It wasnt until we got home and we googled it that we realized this never happens.To Fowler, the penguin looked absolutely flawless, as he tells the Australian Broadcasting Corporations Samantha Goerling, Jamie Thannoo and Peter Barr. But when wildlife biologists arrived at the beach, they found a juvenile male that was malnourished. A surfer spotted the emperor penguin emerging from the water. DBCAThe penguin is now recovering under the watchful eye of registered wildlife caretaker Carol Biddulph, after she inspected the bird on the beach.The bird sort of turned at an angle, and I could see its backbone protruding, and I thought, This bird is well undernourished, so that was a real consideration for bringing it in, Biddulph says in a video shared with media outlets by Australias Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA).Between the condition of the bird and the activity that might have happened on the beach the following day, I thought it was best to bring the bird in.Biddulph helped get the penguin into a large canvas pet carrier that was nice and soft, she says in the video. Then, she loaded the carrier into her car and drove the bird to her home. Biddulph has a dedicated penguin enclosure, but shes never had to deal with a large penguin like this before, she adds. Usually, she cares for much smaller little penguins.The first thing she did was encourage the penguin to step onto a scale so she could record its weightabout 50 pounds. This allowed her to understand how much medication and fluids to give the bird.Never in my wildest thoughts would I thought Id ever have an emperor penguin to care for, she says in the video. Its just amazing. Its just such a privilege to be part of this birds journey.In a reference to the Roman emperor Augustus, the penguin has been named Gus.Emperor penguins that have been equipped with tracking devices have never been recorded this far north, Belinda Cannell, a biologist at the University of Western Australia who is supporting the birds rehabilitation, says to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Carol Biddulph, a registered wildlife carer, is nursing the penguin back to health. Miles Brotherson / DBCAWhy was Gus so far from home? And how did he end up in Australia? No one knows for sure, but Cannells best guess is that the animal was searching for his next meal.What they tend to do is follow certain currents where theyre going to find lots of different types of food, she tells the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. So maybe those currents have just tended to be a little bit [farther] north towards Australia than they normally would.Dee Boersma, a biologist at the University of Washington, agrees that the juvenile male was likely motivated by his appetite. You may be a young bird without much food, so youre going to look elsewhere, she tells the New York Times Victor Mather. Youve got to continue to swim until you find food.She adds: Young penguins have to explore their world.Once the penguin has been nursed back to health, he will likely have to find his own way home. Transporting the bird would be too stressful for him, Cannell tells the London Times Bernard Lagan. The juvenile male weighs about 50 pounds. DBCAEmperors are the worlds largest penguin species, standing nearly four feet tallroughly the same height as a 6-year-old humanand weighing around 88 pounds, according to the World Wildlife Fund.The species is particularly vulnerable to changes brought on by global warming, including rising ocean temperatures and declining sea ice.Other penguin species search for patches of bare ground in Antarctica on which to build their nests and raise their young every summer. But emperors lay their eggs and rear their chicks right on the ice during the winter. They rely on land-fast ice, a stable type of sea ice that is attached firmly to the shore. As the planet gets hotter, the amount of sea ice is shrinking; in some instances, its also breaking up and melting earlier in the spring than usual.In 2022, more than 9,000 emperor penguin chicks likely died because their icy platform in Antarcticas Bellingshausen Sea broke up early. Researchers described this as a catastrophic breeding failure.A 2021 study predicted that 98 percent of emperor colonies would be quasi-extinct by 2100, unless the world cuts greenhouse gas emissions quickly.Could the recent interlopers appearance in Australia have something to do with climate change? Probably not, according to Cannell, who tells the Times theres no kind of rhyme or reason as to why it ended up so far from home.Why it got this far, Id love to know, she adds.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, Antarctica, Australia, Beaches, Birds, Mysteries, Penguins, Water, wildlife

Cassius held the title of the largest crocodile in captivity for much of his life. His age? That's harder to know. David Clode under Unsplash LicenseJust ten days after George Craig, a former zookeeper, retired to an assisted living home, his best mate, an 18-foot-long saltwater crocodile named Cassius, stopped eating. Shortly after that, on October 15, Cassius went into decline. He died last weekend on November 2 at Marineland Melanesia, the park on Green Island, Australia, where he had lived since 1987.Now, researchers are hoping to determine the beloved reptiles age, believing he might have survived as long as 120 years.The cause of his death was attributed to old age, as Cassius was living well beyond the years of his wild kin. But for Toody Scott, Craigs grandson, its easy to assume there was stress involved in Cassius decline, as Craig and Cassius shared a close bond, he tells the Guardians Emily Wind.Cassius brought joy and companionship to his best mate George for over 37 years, wrote Marineland Melanesia in a statement on Facebook.During his life, Cassius earned the world record for being the largest crocodile in captivityhe was as long as the Statue of Libertys face. But his age was a mystery. Not even his keepers knew it, as they made up a birthday for him. Following his death, an animal autopsy may finally reveal how old Cassius truly was.Cassius was captured in the Finniss River in northern Australia in 1984. Its difficult to determine an adult crocodiles age, because their growth rate slows down, but back then, researchers thought he was between 30 and 80 years old. Last year, the zoo celebrated Cassius 120th birthdaybut they admitted that number was just an estimate, as Scott told Live Sciences Sascha Pare at the time. His species average lifespan in the wild is about 70 years.Now, researchers will cut into a sample of the crocs femur bone to count the rings formed within it. These samples will be tested in a lab to determine his age.The lab can cross-section it and look for growth rings, just like in trees, says Sally Isberg, founder of the Center for Crocodile Research in Australia, to Conor Byrne and Adam Stephen of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Though there is a caveat, she says, adding that the growth rings might not be as easily discernible as she hopes.Counting the growth rings might not reveal the crocodiles age accurately, adds Grahame Webb, one of the crocodile researchers who helped capture Cassius from the wild after the animal had reportedly been attacking cattle, to the ABC.These animals stop growing and they can live for decades afterwards without growing, Webb tells the outlet.For some park visitors, Cassius immense size and age made him look like a dinosaur, as Craigs grandson, Scott, tells the Guardian.What theyre looking at was just the closest thing that they could get to a living dinosaur, Scott adds. He just looked ancient.When he died, Cassius was nearly 18 feet long, but parts of his snout and tail were missing. If hed had those body parts, he might have been even bigger. His species of crocodile, Crocodylus porosus, can grow to be more than 23 feet. Cassius lost the title of worlds largest crocodile in captivity in 2011 to a 20-foot crocodile named Lolong in the Philippines. But when Lolong succumbed to an infection in 2013, Cassius reclaimed the crown.Despite his battle scars and missing parts, Cassius had charm, Scott tells the ABC. Cassius would get excited when he saw Craig on his mobility scooter around the park. Craig, 94, left the island for aged care on the mainland.Isberg tells the ABC that with Cassius death, Craig lost a long-term friend.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Aging, Animals, Australia, Biology, Death, Reptiles, World Records, Zoology